Celtics HC Joe Mazzulla, Nuggets HC Michael Malone, NBA Play Ins, Gregg Doyel creeped out America + Fyre Fest

Hey, Part of my Take listeners, you can find every episode on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or YouTube Prime. members can listen ad free on Amazon Music on Today's Part of My Take. We have a twofer for the people. Great N.B.A. preview for the playoffs. We have head coach of the Denver Nuggets, Mike Malone, who we had on last year.

No, it was I was replacing Billy's QB bracket. Oh, okay, all right, so we're going to get.

His QB big board? He's watched the film We Got Fire Fest and we're going to do a redemption pick with Mr. Pear, the worst gambler of all time. It's all brought to you by our friends at Draft Kings, N.B.A. fans.

No pay for hang out, no washing, and then again, name all on the sun. Oh no, we gonna.

Rock down to Electric Avenue and then we'll take it higher. Oh, we gonna rock down to Electric Avenue.

I love you, yeah, that's how Greg Doyle wishes that had gone. Yeah, he's like, I'm in love with you, sir.

Yeah, we're gonna talk about the plans, but we have to talk about Greg Doyle. And the most cringe-worthy press conference I've ever seen. Which, if you didn't hear, can we actually put in the audio? I don't know.

I don't think we should do that to the people. Yeah, we're gonna put in the audio. No, this is Greg Doyle.

Talking to Caitlin Clarker introductory press conference I don't even know like I've watched it so many times, I've cringed. Every single time he went, he did the heart emoji to Caitlin. Clark asked if Caitlin liked it. And then followed up with one of the weirdest things ever. When he said, Okay, we'll start doing that to me and we'll get along just fine.

Did he wrote a column on it? Yeah, and then he apologized in his column with maybe a weirder column. No, it wasn't as weird as the heart thing, but it was almost as weird in the column he was. It was just all about him and how weird he is.

Comma.

Right it, writing out the word sigh Oh, I'm sort of known locally sigh for having awkward conversations with people before asking brashly conversational questions. That's his problem. The the conversation was too brashly controversial. No conversational conversational questions.

They all.

Hmm, people, they're all people, they're all men. Oh shit, so he doesn't know how to talk to a woman. I think that that part was clear.

Oh, we didn't need, yeah, we didn't need you to write a column that you don't know how to talk to it.

And then he said that he went through all the stages of grief. Excuse me, the first two stages of grief after this happened. Okay, mourning his own passing on as an interviewer, I guess, brashly conversational, he said. He said denial. I didn't do anything wrong.

You know what? The craziest part is yet another P part. In that press conference, it was almost equally as cringeworthy. Where he asked the Indiana Fever head coach, he said, So you get the keys to that.

That might be too much woman for you have a key. Said that, damn what, I would take that thing out for a spin. It was. It was very strange, although it did make me think that when the Bears draft Caleb Williams, you should go to his press conference and show your fingernails. Yeah, be like you, like that.

We'll be just fine if you paint my fingernails, Caleb We'll, we'll get along just fine. D So it's obviously not the worst thing that's been done, it's probably the most cringeworthy thing that's been done.

He should just disassociate himself from that conversation and then wrote a column, pretending it was somebody that he doesn't like. That said that, Yeah, pretend it was. Dan Dockage, did that to Caitlin Clark, and then write the column about Dan Dockage, and then do find and replace, and.

Substitute Greg Doyle in for everything. Dan Dockage is getting to do a well-deserved victory tour. Because he's had a long, long history with Greg Doyle. My ass, my ass, also Greg Doyle. He had, I think. His old tweets started to resurface, and here's one from 7 8, 2010, which I listen, I don't love the old tweets thing. But again, he is the Scold king.

I'm kind of edgy sometimes when I talk about LeBron. Yeah, warning bangs, you gotta put a warning at the start of it's called warning these. This column contains some serious hot takes. Yeah, that offends.

This author has been accused of being twisted by himself, and then he does the.

Emoji The old-school emoji, where it's the I guess that would be the greater than sign, and then the colon, and then the smiley face. So it looks like a guy that's smiling, but he's, you know, is that he's just said something.

That's a little bit out of bounds. Damn, you like that, do more of that and we'll get along just fine.

Yeah, Greg Doyle and then Kaitlyn Clark got a shoe deal announced right after that. Yeah, eight figures, which is I think now she's gonna be paid more than she was at Iowa. Yeah, actually, right, so she's making upwards of what, what do you think?

Yeah, I am enjoying the burning brush fire, tire fire online right now. Of just a bunch of people getting in debates about the economics of a league, and no one actually having any expertise.

On it, yeah, it's very fun. Yeah, it is are showing that they don't understand how how the economy works. Yeah, because some people are saying that the WNBA players are paid too low. And then they're comparing them to NBA players and showing what percentage of revenue the players get in the NBA, or how much money they get way less. And so, but NBA players obviously make way more money than WNBA players, but the league revenue is much higher.

The N.B.A. also brings in a fuckload of money. Everyone's going after everyone. I've just been like, diving in Val. Yeah, Ravel is just sticking with his. That Caitlin Clark would have had a shoe deal in Iowa and all this stuff.

We also had I saw Real Quick with Ravel, his new company. When I first saw his company, yeah, I thought it was called clip. Yeah, I thought the name of his company was clipped.

We've been there, but it's just been every. It's basically the avengers of the internet just going at each other. Like Jamal Hill was going at Good Gottlieb, which that's a fun fight, then someone was calling him Got Dweeb, which I loved. Like, this is just the kind of stuff that's going on right now. All because Caitlin Clark when we really should be focusing on Greg Doyle doing the heart. Jamal Hill has the race card and then Doug Gottlieb stole it.

Yeah.

Exactly, but he wrote an apology. Yes, so it's fine, all right, playing games. The Chicago Bulls have advanced to the Friday night game and the Philadelphia 76ers are officially in side the playoff. Congratulations back.

Yeah, no, that's a game that the Sixers lose ten times out of ten with Doc Rivers and last year's team. Oh, Nick, nurse actually can make an adjustment. Halftime adjustments were very good. And Nick, but Nick Patum, absolute beast, like, what what a performance from Nico Patum.

Yeah, that made all that. We should do something. On this show. We're free chicken, like free free part of my cheesesteak, Buffalo chicken cheesesteak. Yeah, Hank falls asleep on the podcast. Yeah, I like that.

Or he, or he doesn't wake up. Uh, yeah, but June was awesome. I saw a great analogy for for Nick Patum, this is from Squeaky Shooter, he said. Nick Patum is the LeBron James of Tobias Harris's.

No, I like that. I mean, Tobias Harris still was absolutely terrible. Yeah, I know well, that's the thing.

Expect one thing we're driving Tobias Harris and you get LeBron James of Tobias Harris's coming up. Yeah, yeah.

I mean, he was awesome, both sides of the court absolutely kept us in it. And then a beat at the end of the game. Finally, he has, like, a good moment in a in a must-win game. That those last three possessions where he went three and one, yeah, and then and then of the pass to to Uber A to get another and one now.

I have to ask this question, Max. So the Sixers are favored in the series against the Knicks. Giannis We don't know when he's going to come back and play. That might be a problem for the Bucs against the Pacers in their first round matchup.

No, I mean, the Knicks are a really good team, the Nova Knicks. It hurts that I'm gonna have to go against my boys like this, but it's kind of opening up for the Sixers. Yeah, it's all about and beats health. Like you can even see last night that he wasn't at a hundred percent. He gutted it out towards the end, but that's, it's a long playoffs.

About the nova cats, you know, that's.

The No. Nova Knicks also Max, you brought up a good point and Bead finally has a big moment in a playoff game. Unfortunately, the playing games do not count, and I didn't say playoff game. I said muscle must win, but it doesn't count, so it actually doesn't.

I watched it so, but the stats don't exist. Playing game, Legend play, yeah.

I guess I think, once the playing game happens.

You can't, even you got to pretend it never happens. Also, by definition not a must win. If they had lost this game, oh, they would have gotten to play another good point, true?

But that was such a game that everyone was, like, so dialed in to be like, uh-oh, playoff and beads back.

No, but you guys, I mean, that would be the narrative right now.

Right, it was not a must win. He still doesn't get it. But Max, I'm with you that I've been, I've been buying in on the Sixers.

Yeah, no, but I mean, that's but the chicken in coming in with a good game plan, making things sloppy. You're gonna have bad halves of basketball like that, but it's good to see it like them bounce back for once. That, like against, we've had halves like that against the Celtics. And then they just went by 50. Like, like, bad first half. They look sloppy and then they just give up and it was nice to see that they didn't give up.

I'm curious to know, as a Boston fan, who would you rather play in the first round, The Bulls?

Why the Bulls? No, I mean, the heat, obviously, you know, have had success against us. No. Jimmy Butler No, I know, but still, it's like, you just don't, just don't matter about the heat.

I'd much rather pretty say that. Yeah, I said. I did actually say I would go to one game, the you just want the free win, which it would be a free win, but that's okay.

Yeah, and it's like, just don't, don't tempt fate like, you just want the free win. I just want the free win, and I'm I want to go to a game.

I'm stuck in a spot where the Bulls were awesome against Hawks, who are an unserious organization.

That's just don't, they don't believe in defense. Did you not believe in defense?

Also, Trey Young is their quote-unquote best player. The only time I was nervous during that game was when Trey wrote Young was on the bench. Because that's when they kind of came back in the game a little bit. And it's I'm stuck because I love Kobe White, he was awesome, I'll come back.

But at least he's going to contribute that money towards his other organization, the the White Sox.

Well, actually, unfortunately for the future, the Bulls and the White Sox. Jerry Reinsdorf probably spent all the money last night because he got. See red towels for everyone on their seats and red panda. Oh right, I understand that budget is probably blown. Yeah, it's probably, but it's what the fans want.

Yeah, Kobe White seems like a good dude to root for. Oh, he was awesome.

Awesome, and and yeah, and DeMar DeRozan is the best, like, he's just he's the best. So we'll see what happens on Friday night, let's see what happened. No Jimmy Butler, probably no Alex Caruso.

Yeah, like playing on a sprained MCL. Yeah, pretty impressive, but then it swells up, it gets worse, so he's probably out for the playoffs.

Yeah, they said, two to three weeks, so.

So in the response to it, I think the Crafts said that they did not say anything negative about Belichick during that interview process. But owners might talk behind the scenes over the course of a frustrating season.

It would have been funny if he just came out and he's like, I did not say anything to Arthur Blank. All communication with Arthur Blank was done through Craft LLC. Yeah, not my words, my words. So where are you?

Yeah, I feel like he. They're like, it's kind of the same thing with Brady, where they in the documentary, they made it seem like, you know, Brady just wanted like some attaboys and some some thank yous. Like, it was probably the same with Kraft, where he felt slighted for whatever reason. Just ego, but what? And Belichick's not the type of guy to be like.

He's done it to himself. And it happens in sports from time to time, where the owner deludes themselves and thinks that they actually are what fans are rooting for. It's like, that's just never the case.

It was always Brady and Belichick. It's never the case, and yeah, I don't it. It sucks because now, I mean, he's he set himself up for for disaster. Because it's like they have a four and a half, you know, win total over under this year. They're not gonna be good and everyone's just gonna come at his neck.

Oh, that that statue unveiling is gonna be a big day for you, though, you have to nail that one.

Yeah, they gotta give him a bigger statue today, I mean, they'll do.

The AI.

That's every statue that goes into the garbage, so they're all that side. But why? why is Rocky get such a big? And why?

Why don't they just get bigger statues for everyone? They just don't value it, also, why do they unveil it?

It's an aesthetic, yeah, but don't, you guys don't know? You guys don't know architecture, don't, don't know architecture. Don't unveil it that way, then don't do the fucking reveal like that when it's like, why did AI seem so surprised?

No, it's not architecture, it's a statue. it's not a building we're talking about, it's it's a.

Landscaping, architecture. Of course, I come on. I grew up on AI, I was, that was like the first fan I ever was of anyone.

First jersey ever balls? Yeah, I don't know. that was the first jersey I had to another dad. I'll set a Brett Favre jersey. Wayne Corbett.

Do you ever take a picture in that Brett Favre jersey with your cock out? I was like, four, so probably.

Yeah, probably the same time was that, too. I was a naked boy, too.

Big meaty clankers.

MAX Quick break I'm so only gonna take 20 seconds. So you should buy, buy, buy, buy, rough-and-rowdy. Tonight in West Virginia, we have 20 new fights, 20 new fights.

Quarterback Yeah, so I broke down the film for everyone. I didn't. I mean, I can rank them. Right now, I have just kind of notes on everyone. And I do have my consensus of who. I would prefer. The Patriots to take your own consensus, your personal.

Yeah, do it in reverse order so we can get the unveil of number one. So start at the start, at the bottom and then go go to one.

Okay.

J.J. McCarthy.

That's he's the bottom, he's the bottom, he's the he's the he's the bottom of this entire exercise.

I did that, I thought I was going for the people that patriots are going after. Oh, top five. oh okay, top five. I'm not what I'm not worried like, it's, it's number five.

Yeah, why not, cuz that's just not what you wouldn't know, you didn't watch tape.

Is he? I think he's dating Caitlin? Clark? saw an Instagram comment Definitely not okay, maybe not.

Greg Doyle is dating McCaffrey's son in his head.

All right, so wait, Hank, you have. You have your top five, which means that you must have watched the film on the other quarterbacks if you knew that these were the top five. Good point PFT.

How many? What's the other quarterbacks? I'm supposed to watch? I'm Michael Panics, wash them, phonics didn't watch, No.

Where's bonus projected to go? Probably, like, could be a first rounder, probably a second rounder. Okay, probably should have watched him.

Okay, I got Bo Nix, I mean, I got Michael Pennington or J.J. McCarthy, Drake, May, Jane didn't. okay, Sorry, so JJ's your fifth, JJ's my fifth.

Okay, all right, number four.

Wait, wait, but those are all. Those are all positive traits. Why is he ranked number five? What's his downside?

These other guys must be incredible. He doesn't throw it, didn't see any long balls or all the long balls wide open. Rose, he was. It's a which again, you know, you kind of watching. It's like he's seen the.

Quarterback, How long was you YouTube video that you watched? 13 minutes? Okay, all right, that's a good amount of film. Mm-hmm.

Number four, it's Drake May, Oh.

He slid.

He's deceptively fast, okay, great, quicker than I expected. A great at selling pump fakes. That's good sliding.

Yeah, can't be taking big hits. Yep, this. Does he try to kick his opponents in the balls when he slides? I didn't see any of that. Okay, cuz that would be a good system fit for you guys.

Well, now we, you know, we got. We got rid of him, and that was that was Robert Kraft. Belichick wanted, wanted him out. Quick feet.

Okay.

But this, this was the biggest, the biggest deterrent, and and the thing that I see happening the most. The ball seems very heavy in his hands, oh so, he's got weak wrists. Maybe it just seems like it takes him a long time to get the ball up and out. And it seems like he's putting a lot of effort into throwing it. It seemed, you know, he's playing in the ACC, the film that I was watching. If you're, you know, simulating N.FL guys come at him, it seems like he's gonna take a lot of hits.

Frame.

It's a little short, but good frame. No, no issues with this frame, thank you.

See, I don't know, remember, that picture took the same house. He's actually six.

Look, short in the film, all right? But yeah, that was that was ball, seemed like I want, I want it, I want to see a QB.

Well, it's like, that's the perfect size for a court.

Yeah, no, I guess if you know what? If he was doing, which quarterback could play in the NBA? 6-4 would be short.

But if he was that big, you'd think that he would be able to just zip the ball. It's heavy, okay?

Got it? Memes had this exact same take heavy in his hand. Oh, he was like, he was like Drake Mays, too short to be a good quarterback.

Michael Pennix Jr. I think he the only reason he's this far up is just because he's a lefty. I'll just say that, bias, lefty, bias. I would just love to have a lefty quarterback, you know, leading my franchise as a lefty myself. So beautiful throwing motion accurate, does a little bit of a heavier ball as well.

He does the fadeaways, but the thing about his fadeaways, or they're insanely accurate. Like he will put the ball on time on an out route, even though he's falling away from the ball.

But that's one of those things when you're, you know, playing in college and you're the guy that works. When you're playing the NFL and everyone's fast, that's not gonna work. Yeah, but he's a lefty.

So he got pumped up above Drake, man. Yeah, I think lefties a little college, but they look like witches in the N.FL. Yeah, two of them to good or bad, it's good, okay.

Yeah, Jane Daniels is number two, or no, that will kill Williams number one. Oh.

Nice, okay?

JANE DANIELS I didn't even watch. I just we're not. you told me a million times, We're not taking Caleb Williams, I was thinking of. This is just like, patriot, patriots.

Yeah, this is, um, you could see his bone coming out of his arm. This has been a great exercise. For one reason. Hank has, just without realizing, admitted that he really wishes he could have both of our quarterbacks. Mm-hmm. And also said that the quarterback that he's most likely gonna get is ranked either fourth or fifth. So I love this exercise.

I had, cuz he's stud you. What are we? Google? No, I just know I was, I have to. I guess I didn't do my follow-up.

I don't believe so, but that you want him.

Yeah, I mean his receivers, like I think all of his deep balls were just wide open. I think that might be a receiver, a receiver talent thing if it were up to me. No, he's not. Wait, I.

Think we talked about him with McShay.

BRIAN ThOMaS Brian Brian Thomas, Yeah, maybe it's Brian. I was, just I was, he said, right?

I was listening, I was listening to the video. Oh so, it probably was Brian, it is Brian. Okay, he is in the draft.

That's, that's my best case scenario. Draft Okay, so you draft, you draft Marvin Harrison third overall. Yep, and then you trade up to what I don't know to get to get Ryan Thomas to get Penix Jr.

Is he's projected to go top ten? Panic? Not, maybe. It depends on if there's a.

First round, but this. It happens from time to time, when there's a bunch of first-round graded quarterbacks. Once a few of them get drafted, then teams start to freak out. And that's how we ended up with, like, who is it Brandon Whedon getting drafted in the first round?

Yeah, but it's teams might have gotten smart because it's like, Will Levis fell because it was like, alright, everyone could just wait and get him in. The. But there is that phenomenon of wanting to get that extra your control too. Yeah, like the Lamar Jackson, trading it back up into 32 and getting him, so that's, that's my.

That's my analysis. I got a little more, some more film. Maybe there's other guys that they could trade up for. The Spencer Radler's. Yeah, yeah.

Oh, he just, he just said. We just did an entire exercise where he's like, I really want PFT and Big Cats Court.

So you have, you have Caleb number one, Jade and Daniels number two. Yeah, and then a long like, there's a big gap, big gap.

Panics you panic Shooter, Big gap, Yeah, Drake May, J.J. McCarthy.

I'll be on track, but. But strength no. Jade Drake, Drake May can be good. He's just got a got to grow. Yeah, he can.

He looks like he's throwing a medicine ball. Yeah, he would look short in that Patriots uniform, too.

Did you watch any of the games that he played in the rain? Is that maybe part of this?

I didn't see many of those on the Okay I was watching.

Literal heavy ball, all right, this was great. Do we have anything else before we get to our interviews? This is great, yeah.

Yeah, he was gambling, he's betting against the Raptors in some games, yeah, like betting on them to lose.

What was this about? what was this was Jokic? I don't think he'd be banned for life.

But I also don't think you could should ever do it. Because he's making enough money that that would be the dumbest thing ever. That that's why it happened, is he's a fringe guy.

Who MBA money is so ridiculous.

I don't think he was getting that much. Crazy thing is, he was betting parlays against himself, so he was betting the unders and like, rebounds, I forget what else. Maybe. Assists, points and he put down 80 grand to win, I think, 1.1 million dollars on a John T. Porter under parlay.

Hey, I mean, they had to do it. I think that's the right move. Like, you can't have someone betting on against yourself.

Yeah, so if it had been different, if he had bet his overs in a parlay and if he had bet on his team to win? And that had that had actually happened, what do you think the punishment would have been?

Probably similar because he's a fringe guy. It's also he was telling other people to like, he was using proxies to bet him. Which that is very, very bad. Because then it's just the integrity of the game. So I, yeah, the N.B.A. probably had to do it and it also. I know. People will then make an argument about gambling, and like legalization gambling without the legalization of gambling, this probably never gets caught.

Every sports book has things in place where they see these like giant anomalies.

Yeah, and then they flag them to the league. I wouldn't be shocked if there is maybe a little bit of a correction where some of the fringe players don't have props. On a night-to-night basis, that would make sense, just because those are the guys. Like Jokic would never do this because he's making hundreds of millions of dollars. But a guy who's the tenth man on a bench, who knows that? If he bets something, checks into a game for a minute and then comes out, he can win.

Yeah, I like his excuse, too, he was saying that he had like a headache or his eye hurt. Yeah, come out of the game, hitting the shoulder and then he's like, My eye, yeah, my eye hurts. my eye hurts so bad, I can't play anymore.

Okay, let's get to our interviews, incredible interviews we got. Joe Missoula, Boston Celtics head coach, wins us over big time, and then we have Michael Malone, Denver Nuggets head coach.

Yeah, I mean, I think you hit on a great point there. The balance of. You know, you have to understand that you're a really good team, but you got to understand that. Like, none of that really matters as much anymore. Because everyone's got the same record, you know, we're all zero and zero, and every series takes on a life of its own. So we've had a really good week of practice.

Yeah, do people think that this season's been easy for you guys just because you've had so much success? Is that something that kind of gets lost in it, that it has been a grind?

Yeah, I mean, I think obviously on the outside it probably looks as like, you know, we didn't hit a ton of adversity, or, you know, we've only had two game losing streaks. It could look that way, but you know, I kind of said this a few times it. It can be just as hard handling winning as anything else, because you can get complacent, you know, you could get prideful, you could take the details for granted. And I thought, like, the coolest part about our guys this year is they never took winning for granted. I thought they handled it really well.

Let's get to the real interview. When was the last time you were choked out?

The day after we lost to Atlanta.

So can you explain the jiu-jitsu, cuz, like it was? That story came out last year? It seemed really cool because it's like just learning about other guys. And in the height of their profession, they have these hobbies. You have a jiu-jitsu instructor who, for a while you didn't know, lived in Colorado and would come at the drop of a hat and and and do jiu-jitsu sessions with you. And also he talked about feeling the pressure of playoff basketball, and it's similar to being in a choke hold.

So we'll start there. So when I the coolest part about, you know, becoming the head coach of the Celtics and, like, you know, achieving your dream at a relatively young age. You kind of look back and you look at all the stuff that you regret, and so, like, two of my biggest, not biggest regrets. But like, two things I wish I stuck with were chess and martial arts, so I did those as a kid growing up. And you know, once my dad passed and my kids started to get older, I started to, like, rekindle the passions of the arts like chess, piano, martial arts. And I started to rekindle those with my kids.

That's only gonna help me get better. Yeah, I like, I like that strategy a lot and it for listeners out there. Don't. Do not look up online. Guys to fly in to come choke me out. That's a bad Google search to have on your history.

We blow a 30-point here. I'm just pissed, right? So I go to the I go to the gym, we find a gym in most cities. And for like, two hours. We're just like, I still got, still got a little piece of like the black eye from it.

Do you do that? I mean, I appreciate what you said about how you want to put yourself through strenuous situations so you can empathize with your players and be tired just like they are. Do you find that the more you get put in those situations where you're either getting the crap kicked out of you, are you getting choked out? You're able to stay calm in those moments, and that translates to being in a game in high-pressure situations.

Yeah, so one of the things are Alex does, he's tremendous, is he finds these concepts and themes that correlate to competition in general, right? And so one of the themes is like, most people. Tap before it actually, like before the submission actually hurts, right? It's like the fear of being in the submission is when you tap and so like. That can be applicable to handling championship expectations or success, or being in a tough spot. And, like, you know, thinking that you can't get yourself out of it, so, you know, it's a little dark. But, like, one of the things in most submissions is you do want to find a comfort level because there usually is a way out.

That's badass. I would have tapped out the minute he showed up in my driveway. I've been like, all right, never mind.

I'm tapping out like a man with a black belt in the key is knocking on my door. Yeah, I would just move.

Yeah, just start tapping immediately.

First, other cool, two of the other cool themes are like, the closer you are to winning, the closer you are to losing, right? So, like you saw it at UFC 300, where Jalen Turner knocks the guy down, walks away and then loses next round. And then you see, you know, when Wei Li Zhang, like, pretty much chokes her out. Most people can't handle the fact that you think you beat your opponent, but now you still have to fight them. Oh, like, that's a major mindset shift in a game of like, okay, they look like they're dead, but they come back to life. How do you shift your mentality to, like, keep winning, or, like in Jalen Turner's case?

That's, I mean, it's genius. You can see how applicable that is to basketball, especially a seven game series. Where there are those ebbs and flows, where it's like a team goes up to, Oh, and you're like, all right, they won. And that's just not how it works, it just always there's always a wrinkle and a team can get momentum back. Yeah, wow.

You mentioned before we start taping, you read Art of war. Do you take? like? we listen to art of war when we train?

Oh yeah.

What's an art of war lesson that you can apply to basketball?

Also, what we use with our offense, like with the guys, is now this is, I don't, you know. This is obviously different from when he wrote it. But like, there's only five musical notes, there's only five primary colors. And mixing all those together, you know, having the simplicity of only five. But when you add them all together, you get this beautiful, you know, this, this array of colors of a beautiful music. Using simplicity to, you know, get complexity out of it. And really, just like how you view your opponents like you have to have the ultimate respect. The most respectful thing you can do for your opponent is understand that they can beat you at any time.

You can, you couldn't, by the way, in this room right now. Hank, our producer, is a diehard Celtics fan. He's smiling ear-to-ear because you can feel, you can feel. It's shifting in the room that PFT and I are becoming huge. JOE MiSSoUla Guys, yeah, and it's into this interview like, he can, he's, he's looking.

I, I had, I had a question for I was just gonna ask you how much a dollar bill weighs.

Whoo, I mean, that's great, huh? I gotta think about that scene, right? So they're in the bar. Yeah, okay, yeah. Not even worth its own weight.

Do you have it playing behind you right now on a big TV?

So let's clarify that. So, as an assistant, I watched it two, three times a week. Easy?

That's too many, just so, you know.

Well, you gotta think like we do most of our work after the games and so like, you got to stay up late at night. Like, I never liked waking up with work to do from the day before. Yeah, like, when I was an assistant and I would have to turn in my post game edits, I would go home and walk in. Like, just work from like 11 to 1 a.m. And so I needed something to, like, kind of keep me up or keep me going. So there was like a three movie shuffle that I would turn on in order to get me through the game. So that I could get to bed in the town ended up being one of them, so, like, I'm not.

Whiplash and The Dark Knight Oh, okay, those are good, those are good ones, those are ones where if they're on TV, I will.

You have to watch those three movies, yeah.

I think you're downplaying your your obsession with town just a little bit because you didn't make t-shirts from the town well.

I mean, like, there's so many great like lines from that. Like the one, the one where he fight, where he finds out that Dougie McCrae's sleeping with the with the with the bank manager. Mm-hmm. Jeremy Reddick's like, smart, I'm blowing the assistant manager. am I being smart like?

Imagine the time with Boston probably has a lot to do with with your, your love of that movie, to where? It's just like, Okay, this makes me feel like a Boston guy watching this. I went to Fenway the other day.

And I was literally looking at, like, exit strategies.

The blueprint is right there. I was thinking about that this morning, actually, I was just driving, I was like, fuck.

Yeah, you can't look at our armored truck the same. No, definitely not.

Definitely not.

Are you in there with her? He ties his pants into his bootstraps. Yeah, that guy's a boy scout, yeah.

Are you? Are you officially retired from trying to block shots? I got forced into that. Okay, so for people who don't know who, there was the Suns game this year, the Cells were playing the Suns and Jalen Brown stole the ball in the backcourt. Dunked. The Suns called the timeout, but they'd already advanced the ball and I can't remember who it was.

Like, the guys probably liked it. I mean, that's our war at its finest. Like, I don't understand, I don't understand how you could give your opponent any opportunity to feel good about themselves on your half of the turf. Yeah, and we've been doing that for two years like we do.

To make one? Yeah, sure.

What about if a fan takes a shot? So hypothetically, if the ball goes into the crowd, the guy in the first row gets it. And then they want to put up a shot from the sideline. If they're, if they're on your team, if they're hypothetically again a Celtics fan, would you want them to shoot it and let it go in? Absolutely okay, because we have actually a guy that's here that lived out that hypothetical situation.

What game was that? Hank? I was? Warriors Finals game three. I think, yeah.

Yeah, but he didn't have the courage to put up a shot, he did the pump fake on it instead of actually taking a shot.

Do you wish he had shot that? Yes, I got. Jordan pooled him to bite, though he.

You gotta shoot that, let it be known.

So Hank is a massive fan of yours, is a big Celtics fan. And he's agreed. He's agreed to shave his head and his beard if the Celtics win the NBA championship this year. So there's a there's a lot at stake here, Hank, Do you have any questions for coach?

I saw JJ, Redick and LeBron were talking about how, like every player in the league will. Kind of. When they're down, they'll look up their highlights, you know, they'll go on YouTube. How often do you look up? 2010 West Virginia vs Kentucky.

Sweet 16 Never, never, it's ever, never. Oh, that was such a lucky game, like, from my standpoint. Hey, you know, the one thing I always try to prevent is like, the older you get, the better you were. And I was, I was not good.

Big East Yeah, what about how many times did you have to hit Huggy Bears treadmill? A decent amount? Yeah, we've had Huggy on a bunch of times in that treadmill. He doesn't sound like it was fun.

Depends on what your definition of fun is. My fun is not running. yeah, my fun is is, you know, being as combative as possible in a high-stress situation. So there was a few times where we would exchange words while I was on it. And he wasn't, and I let him know that he couldn't, he wouldn't been able to run on that treadmill.

I think you just like depriving your brain of oxygen. Whether you're getting choked out or running long distances, you just let you you like getting that that runners high going.

It's better than an Ombar. Yeah, true, true, you don't want to get on bar. Yeah, we're like, lock.

You know, vibes are good, it's after a practice, maybe after a win. Who's who's the guy on the team that will kind of chirp you the most? Or, like, is, is the most out? Outgoing to try and get a rise out of the other guys on the team, like, who's the guy? That will kind of come at you a little bit to get the other guys going.

Who are players that come at me?

Yeah, like, sure, like, you know, it's, it's, it's like after a good practice, after a win. Like, they're just kind of, you know, they'll chirp you though, to kind of get a laugh out of the other guys.

They probably do that more when I'm not around. I think that's probably like the nature of coaching is like, if your team's not making fun of you, then you're not a coach. Probably, like, you know, I'm sure they also probably spend zero time thinking of me outside of basketball, which I'd be perfectly fine with also. But after practice, you know, it's a really cool environment that I've really enjoyed being around. These guys, you know you?

So you're, like, Derek, like, Thank God, you shaved your head.

No, Derek's more like he loves sarcasm, so like, we'll pick something and just like, just stop mocking it with, like, severe sarcasm. I like that, I like that, like, like we lose one game and it's like, Oh my god, how could we ever lose, like?

Mm-hmm. Does Paul Pierce just live at the practice facility?

No, but I enjoy having him around, he comes around a decent amount. Yeah, good, yeah, we. We did a little research on you.

Maybe some some questions that you didn't think that we would ask you?

Those are the ones I love the most, okay?

The first one is that your, your dad and you went to a baseball field together when you were a kid and something unusual happened. Would you care to elaborate on that?

That is one of the reasons why I am today, and I think it's an important thing in society. Is the alpha male challenge? It's kind of what me and my brother call it okay, and yeah, yeah, myself that day. And he put his money where, you know, he tried to have me put my money where my mouth is. So it's a little rainy baseball field on the side of the road. Head out there and he closes the gate, kind of like where the guys do batting practice. And he just said, the winner walks out of here alive.

I love it.

So we end up going to. We always ate dinner most of the time at my grandmother's house, like typical Italian family. So I'm just sitting there, like in mud, like sniffing, crying, like just eating my food. Like the loser that I was at the time. And like, just no one's talking to me and I'm just licking my wounds.

Oh, the alpha male challenges. It's just locking yourself in a fence and fighting your dad. Yeah, yeah.

Okay, I like that. Yeah, what about that on in? It was like, you know you better if you, if you're gonna run your mouth, thank you, yeah.

Yeah, what about the fact that you're a head coach in the N.BA, you know? Obviously nice contract, very successful. Still driving a minivan that 90,000 miles, I got to get it to 100 g's.

What, what? what's up with that? What kind of minivan? I mean, it's a 2017 Chrysler Pacifica. Okay, oh, you're putting some miles on that thing.

So once it gets a hundred thousand, are you getting a new minivan? are you? are you moving up in the world?

It depends. I haven't really seen something that I like. So it started because we were living in West Virginia and we were always driving like, either to Ohio or to. Like, you know, beaches around the area, like an ocean city, or, you know, down south. And so it made a lot of sense. Our kids were a little bit young and so I was like, and you know, my kids had a bunch of friends living in the area, so we always had like five, six people around.

Yeah, I'd say I like it, though.

That's a commitment to the minivan, going to a hundred. If you were to describe it from the outside black leather interior, automatic doors, TVs in the back, you wouldn't know that it's a minivan town. Always on for your kids. Yeah, I.

Like that, I like that a lot. It's a good car. Yeah, Hank, you have any more questions for coach?

I got a tip for coach, while you think about it, I'll take that all right, okay, so here's the tip.

Yeah, so I won. I didn't see any of this coming. I just thought I was gonna be like the behind-the-bench, you know, slapdick, you know, for most of my career. And so I, you know, that that was kind of my introductory to, like, people actually give a shit about me thing, and I was kind of pissed about it. But I mean, when I made my quizlet, I was like, I didn't know how to make it private.

Okay.

That was like, that was my way of learning the league because I went came from D2 to the NBA. And then it was my way of. Like, building a relationship with the rookies that I worked with. Like, how detailed can we be? And like, what are all the different ways we can retrieve the information? Whether it's like, and some of them, some players learn differently, so some like matching, some like fill-in-the-blank, some like, you know, multiple choice, so like it gave.

Yeah, yeah, it's very cool. I mean, again, it's the attention to detail. Have you have you had a conversation with Derek White, though, about him? You had it on? His wants to throw his body into you and draw fouls? Have you talked to him about it?

Yeah, that was one of the things I was really excited about when we got him is we'll get to the free-throw line more.

Yeah, it's smart, yeah. It is interesting, though, that any, any coach can get instant access to your mind, though. Yeah, when they look that up, you should have put some like, funny, fake stuff.

That is not that's, that's just a scratch the surface about what's going on up here. Yeah, it's a quiz.

It's just a quick like, Hey, let's, let's look, you don't want to know what's really going on in my mind.

What's really going on your mind?

He's trying to rob Fenway Park. Yeah, I mean, literally, how can I win every single situation or environment, like, how can I? how can I win the environment? No matter where I am at any particular time? What are the threats, the strengths and the opportunities? And like, can you look at every single situation?

I haven't, I haven't thought about that, but now, every time I go through a revolving door, I'm gonna think about it, you're screwed, so what about?

Look at the line on the way in, study all the people.

Yeah, okay, that's fascinating that is, and you never turn that off.

No, that's an unfortunate thing for my family.

So like, you're at home, you're, you're sitting on the couch, you're watching cartoons with the kids. What's your mindset then?

What can I take from this? To like, teach my kid a lesson like, you can't just watch this just to watch it. Like, there's got to be something here that's gonna that you got to learn from it. Yeah, I am, I'm falling in love with the coach, Missoula.

Yeah.

But it, it, it's not all positive, right? Like, it's not. I'm not saying I'm a good person for it. There are a ton of negative ramifications to that type of mindset. Yeah, like your wife or kids come to you with, like, a very empathetic situation, and it's just like.

Yeah, you're just telling yourself that, yeah, yeah, right, you're breaking it down. Like, it's, yeah, like it's trying to trying to bust up someone's pick-and-roll strategy. You're just like, No, okay.

Well, you know, how'd you get to this point?

Yeah, no, dad, I just said I have a I had a bad day.

Sometimes, sometimes your wife just wants you to be like, Yeah, that person was very unfair to you.

Like, you can't let that person be unfair to you. Yeah, yeah, hey, what was your you thought of one?

Oh, yeah, you roll, you roll. A jiu-jitsu's matt on the on the floor after practice, whole team tournament. Who's walking out there?

Who's walking out on top? And so that's kind of the beauty of jiu-jitsu is like, you don't know everyone's a weapon, and everyone has a different weapon, and you don't know that weapon until you get into the fight. Like, if you ever gone to a jiu-jitsu class. One of the most debilitating things to your own ego is. Like, the three guys next to you that are like, overweight just came from. Like work. They can barely do, like the push-ups and the sit-ups, like in the warm-up. But they're like brown belts. And you get into a fight and you, you last like 10 seconds and it's like, How did I lose to this guy?

Yeah, I bet it's Brad Stevens. I bet Brad has a plan to to kill everybody in the room, yeah.

He seems like the kind of guy that would have that speak. Speaking of Brad, has he ever told you you're coaching for your job?

Um, doesn't everybody tell me that? Well, Yeah, I mean, your job is to coach.

Yeah, yeah, good point.

I kind of tell myself that, you know.

We have an old friend, internet friend who would always tweet Brad Stevens coaching for his job, and people would get so upset. He's like, Well, his job is to coach I.

Tell myself that, though, yeah, it's a good mentality to have. How much do you guys miss having Blake Griffin on the team?

Oh yeah, man, he's awesome, isn't he? Yeah, he was on the show on Wednesday. He just he was. He's one of our good friends.

Told this story yesterday like, I have the utmost respect for him. So when I get the job and we signed Blake Griffin and I'm like, shit like, this guy was a number one pick. Like, I don't know anything about this guy. I knew everyone else on the team for the most part, and I'm like, how am I gonna coach this guy?

He has, he had nothing but high praise for you guys. And he said that he was like, very close to wanting to come back, but he didn't want to, he didn't want to cheapen it. And like, come back at the end of the year and and not be with the guys all year.

Which I respect the hell out of. I refrained from begging him to come back because he, he told me he wanted to be with his kids. And so, like, you know, I know how hard that could be, but I would have done a lot to get him back in our locker room.

Yeah.

So, on that note, we always said, would say that, like, Blake's the most important player on any team that he's on, regardless of how much he was playing. Just because he's he's a good guy to have around, he's kind of like this, the straw that stirs the drink sometimes.

Yeah.

Outside of, like the superstars on the Celtics right now, yeah, who would you say would be the most important guy?

I would tell you like, that range from like like eight and a half to like 14. Like, those guys don't get enough credit because they. They really hold the locker room together because they could easily shut it down halfway through the year. Or have, like, a negative mentality. You know what I mean, Yeah, you know, so like, like, you know, like. Like Peyton and Sam. They have their minutes and they've gone through that grind of like, the inconsistencies, and they've played their butts off this year.

Yeah, well, coach, this has been awesome, we really appreciate it. I get one last question for you, it's row back, row back question. RHLback.com promo code Take Q-Zips, polos, hoodies, joggers, shorts, even bathing suits.

Can you tell us the debate and settle it? I mean, the bait, I guess, is which one's better? Yeah, so which one is? I mean, I can't. I don't want to do that to either company.

Carneseca Gavit Like, Yeah, of course, there's an Italian discrimination. So you think that's why they didn't get enough enough bids in the tournament this year?

Yeah, everyone's just tired of the the tallies.

Like you, but that rock, that was awesome. Yeah, you've even won over the Sixers fan here. It's hard to do.

I mean, I know when you said that, I was like, there had, like, there's been so much mafia run through the Big East over the years.

People are probably tired of it. Yeah, okay, so who's on your mount? Rushmore of Italians? Oh.

Good question, That's a great question, thank you.

Great question, put you on the spot here. Yeah, oh, I know.

I mean, Mario Balotelli is gonna be up there. Okay, yeah, okay, play for the national team, their goalie. Also. He's been around really. bouffant, bouffant. yeah, he's like 30 years.

Yeah, you can go with, you can go old-school, like a little Leonardo, you know, Da Vinci, you can go with some, some of that stuff. Yeah, Donatello, all the ninja turtles, all the ninja.

I think, I think I appreciate Donatello and Leonardo. Okay, yeah, yeah, it should just be the Ninja turtles.

Mike Florio, who's an Italian from West Virginia, so you got to mention him, Mike Florio. But I think I think the Ninja turtles are probably up there, yeah.

Yeah, all four of them, oh, that's Italians. You should have your jiu-jitsu guy come over dressed as as Michelangelo and choke you out.

No, right, or using one of the who's a guy? who's the one with the nunchucks? Nunchucks is Michael and Michael and a party dude.

Yeah, yeah, Cowabunga. Yeah, yeah, that's my favorite. Okay, yeah, he's the best.

Yeah, I would take you as more of a Raphael guy, but that's more calculating, but Michelangelo Raphael is more of my personality.

Yeah, my little is my son's favorite, so I I flock to him. Okay, that makes sense.

It's good to have, it's good to have Italian represent representation in media like the Ninja Turtles.

Yes.

Well, go bakeries. Yeah, bakeries coach has been awesome we are, you've won us over, good luck in the in the rest of the in the playoffs. If it's the Bulls, I hope you can at least give us one game. If it's the Bulls. You got to come by the office and maybe put us through a drill.

We go through a jiu-jitsu session at the facility. Okay, John, I mean, done. And we work on, like, contingency plans, exit strategies.

Yeah, uh-huh. yes, yes, boy, the way out. Yeah, I feel like you would hate going to an escape room.

Who know what? We went to one this year.

Were you panicked in there? were you like, I don't know how to get out, I.

Wanted to make a room in my house and escape.

You develop a rivalry against the House every day, you're trying to beat the house.

Challenge with the house, walk into the house and, like, kick the door on purpose. And I was shitty, all right.

Coach, There's been so, so much fun and yeah, you have won us all over and best of luck in the playoffs and we'll talk soon. I appreciate it.

And last thing, I want you guys to know. I came in the coaching because I think NBA players get get a bad rep. And there's a but you always hear about college coaches or people say they can't coach. I got the best group of guys. I think NBA players in general misunderstood with what they deal with on and off the floor, like what they put their bodies through. And like, just because they make a lot of money doesn't mean that it's easy.

Okay, and just so, you know what you just said? That doesn't mean we can't say, like, Oh, I would have made that free throw, because I will say that from my couch, okay?

Oh, Joe, Mozilla was brought to you by our great friends. Over at. Proper Number 12 Irish whiskey, I love Proper 12 had some Proper 12 last weekend and I want to remind you guys to pour the roar with proper number 12 Irish whiskey. And they also have proper Irish apple. It's from the heart of Dublin. 12 original proper Number 12 is rich.

Okay, we now welcome on a very special guest. It is coach Michael Malone. Denver Nuggets. NBA champs, we haven't seen you since you won the NBA championship, so let us be the last people to wish you congratulations on winning the NBA title. We had you on last year around this time, and I want to, I want. We want to talk about playoffs, the season, everything.

You know, I think I think I scared most people away when I when I was very rude to a Cassidy Hubbert on the sidelines of a play of a playoff game. But no, most people are following the rules, the streets are talking, they know that they don't call me Michael. My mother's gonna come looking for, No, I appreciate you.

Yeah, you got to put your flag in the ground, let people know. Yeah, we were actually the Michael Police. Last year. We saw people referring to, using the the wrong word. We would jump down their throat and say, no, you get it right. That's a future N.B.A. Championship coach right there and put some respect on his name.

Oh, I tell you a while. And the worst part about that parade was that night we went to Las Vegas. And you know, I started early that day, so I didn't last late into the night, unfortunately, but the parade was awesome. My wife was next to me on the fire truck, she kept on telling me to slow down, slow down, and I really didn't know what that meant.

Yeah, even Jokic had fun at the parade, that's how you know that it was a good parade. So all right, so last question about last year, and then let's turn the page, all focus on this year. How many times have you looked down on your arm and been like, I really did get that tattoo?

Sometimes I forget I have it, and then obviously I get out of the shower, I look in the mirror and I. I remind myself, I got Maxi, the minor, and he's gonna be with me every step of the way moving forward. Yeah, and I did save some room, though, for some more trophies and more tattoos, so we'll see what happens.

I like that.

So you said, almost immediately after you won, you might have even said it before you won your first title, that that. The goal was to establish something long term, to establish a dynasty in Denver. When did you start thinking that it would be possible to even compete for multiple championships?

You know, I go back to the bubble and I know we lost to the Lakers in the Western Conference finals. But that's when I felt, you know what? We have a special player in Nicole Jokic, we have a special player in Jamal Murray. And now we have to make sure we bring the right pieces in to help those guys. And we had injuries after the bubble, where we weren't hole in the playoffs. But finally, being whole and healthy and adding guys like Aaron Gordon, adding guys like, obviously Contavious Caldwell Pope.