Nuggets HC Michael Malone, Comedian Big Jay Oakerson, Celtics Lose Game 7 And Hank Is Down Bad + Success Finale Recap

He was in studio, so an extra long pardon, my take. Remember, we only have Tuesday and Friday this week, so if you want to save some for Wednesday, you can. We have Game 7 Celtics heat, we're going to talk about that game where Hank's head is at. Also, maybe someone getting a random smooch over the weekend.

Who's back of the Week and Succession Finale series finale? So we'll talk about that after the interview. So if you haven't watched it, just don't listen to the last 10 minutes of the show before we do all of that.

Let's go.

When you bet the heat up 3-0 and the Panthers up 3-0, cash is got to be the biggest relief of all.

If it was a six-game series, you need seven games, you need that extra cushion there to win. So this all fell into the model. Statistically, it was exactly where I wanted to be.

It's no different than if we had won game four, that we won game seven, it's 10. Then we collect, we regroup, we move on. I need Carl Nassib, though, to tell me how many times I need to become a quadrillionaire. Like the compound interest. I don't know how that works, but I'm pretty sure. If I take the squarest parlay of all time at 10 Roi, eventually I'll be the richest man on earth.

So I'm waiting to hear how I can, I guess, advance and use my winnings to make more money. But it wasn't about me, it wasn't about the bet, I actually, I hated to win the bet that way. When you had Jason Tatum go down with a sprained ankle on the first play of the game, pretty much that he was not going to be himself on defense.

He wasn't moving at all on offense, every shot that he was taking, it was like he was. He was thinking really hard before every single shot, trying to will his way to be able to get a little bit of elevation on any shot, so it was tough. You don't want to win that way. If I, if I could give the money back, I would, because it felt dirty winning, winning that 10 that way.

Yeah, it's a Warren Buffett.

I don't know if he's going to talk back to us. Good, good point, we, we. We do not know if Hank will partake in today's part of my take coming off an l. Uh, Henry, you're trending on Twitter, some are saying that you ended the stream early.

I didn't okay in the stream and early PFT. I don't push the buttons. Uh, factor fiction. Where are you at mentally?

Why don't you tell us how you're feeling? And please do elaborate, use your words as much. The beauty of a podcast is there are no commercial breaks, that's true.

Big cat, I'm here as I always am, I'm always ready to give my takes. I'm feeling very disappointed. Uh, there was a lot of excitement going into the game.

It almost felt like people from Boston were a little bit too sure the Celtics were going to win. Everyone was already kind of counting the Red Sox and Celtics as the first two teams to ever come back from three. Nothing before it actually happened, not you. I was expecting them to come out.

I was expecting them to come out, uh, to, you know, anxious or ready to to blow the doors off and and miss some shots, and that happened. I wasn't surprised. In the first quarter, second quarter, and then the third quarter, they had a run, they had the momentum, the crowd was in it.

They were getting defensive stops and they just could not make a shot. They had some really, really bad turnovers, a lot of turnovers, I think like 14 or 15, and they just could not hit a shot. Obviously, Tatum going down in the first play, not going to make excuses, but that's never what you want. And besides Derek White, no one, no one, no one was hitting shots.

So let me ask you a question. Um, not to make excuses, because Tatum's injury was real, like you could see, he was, he was hobbled, he was not the same. Uh, but you brought up a point that you thought a lot of people were saying game seven was it was over.

Like, you guys were good, walk me through Saturday night. When Derek White makes that. Put back one of the most insane endings to an N.B.A. game with the stakes as high as they could be. You yourself are not thinking we got this? Oh, I absolutely did.

I was, I was, listen, I said it. After game four, it felt like again it did. There was a lot of comparisons. 2004 They got blown out game three, then they get it to seven, and then in game seven, obviously that was a blowout.

So obviously that's how you felt. We've been in this way before and in game seven we blew them out. I was confident, I felt like we had all the momentum on our side and we did.

And then our star player got hurt and we couldn't. It's not even there's no excuses to be made. They just missed every single shot by the three diabetics, right? And they died by the three game.

Six was unbelievable. PFT, I was with PFT just that win, and the day after did. It did feel like a game seven win. It felt like a series.

When I was, I was basking in it, I truly was. I mean, the way that you won Game six is almost better than.

Wait, were they both? It was both from the same part of the country. Yep, is there anyone in this room who has just complete ownership of Henry Lockwood? Jake Marsh?

Oh, no, Jake, that guy, he owned you. yeah, can you say it?

Will you say what I just said? Jake Marsh owns Henry Lockwood? Yeah, Jake Marsh. Jake Marsh owns Henry Lockwood.

I had all the momentum I had. PFT is really stupid bet, and then Max, I had, you know, obviously we'll get to it. The dumbest video and funniest video maybe in the history of this podcast.

And it just sucks so much that it doesn't matter as much. Because the Celtics lost a series. If the Celtics had won that series, I would. I mean, I'm still.

Oh yeah, if they had won the series, it just would have been so much sweeter. And it sucks. It's a disappointment. They it. As fun as the series was, as fun as Saturday night was. It's a letdown. They should have been in that spot.

They win game one or two, and then they could have won the series in six, but it's USA. Losing the gold is what happened. Yeah, cause you had the moment, you had the iconic moment in Game six, you had the iconic kiss heard around the world with Max and his bro.

And all of it gets just kind of erased from the kiss that we will that will come up often. Do you want to explain it? Yeah, all right, yeah.

We could explain it. So in Game six, the Derek White game, which was insane, like I blew that game, that's the other part of that game. Without the Celtics shouldn't have even been in that.

We said that game five was game six, game seven was game seven. That was a good lesson, yeah.

Game seven is always game seven. That was a true must win, by the way, next time.

But so back to Saturday night, incredible I. It wasn't an incredible game. I actually was sitting on my couch being like, what did I just watch? Because it felt like both teams wanted to lose and it wasn't well played. But it had the most insane ending ever because you had Jimmy Butler terrible for 44 minutes that he played.

He played 46 last two minutes. He scores 10 points, gets the three point foul, hits all three free throws to go up. Wait a second. It was a two point foul that Missoula challenged into a three point, but then got you the 0.9 seconds back.

Yeah, yeah, and yeah, it wasn't. It wasn't dumb challenge, it was maybe the worst challenge of all time, ever, ever. And so Jimmy Butler nails all three ice in his veins. Three seconds left a ball out at half court.

Marcus Smart turns, misses a shot, misses a three pointer and Derek White gets to the rebound. Where he was like he was. The inbounder, gets to the rebound, puts it up in in with no time left on the clock. Maybe the most ridiculous ending, cause everyone was watching Marcus Smart Miss and being like, series over, game over, everything's over.

And Derek White just snuck in there and did it. Meanwhile, Uh, where? So I'm on my couch. Pft and Hank are watching together Saturday night.

Max decided that, uh, content is king, which I want to give him a little. If we had, if we had Buckeye stickers, we could put on our helmets. Max gets a couple of cameras on his helmet for Saturday night. Cause he had, he could have done nothing, he could have enjoyed his weekend, he could have been at the bar doing nothing but having fun.

Instead, he decided to do live reaction videos, so not library. He wouldn't go live, he had. He took the video, then he posted it on Twitter. He posted the video of Marcus Smart missing and Derek White hitting the shot of him like being happy.

And then being like, Holy shit, he Derek White got this in time, mixed in there, his boy boyfriend, just my boy, all right, I just want to get it right.

We're about to be in Pride Month, we're about to be in Pride Month. I was hoping it was a random sneaks, the softest, most sensual kiss on Max's ear. It was like the tiniest, littlest kiss. it was the kiss.

It was the kiss, you, you, you kiss before you get your dick sucked. That's what the kiss was. And uh, not only does Max have that kiss happen, but then he posts the video again. No need to post anything, uh? And it will live in lore of this show forever.

Pft. When you saw it, I mean, your reaction was probably the same as like I, I watched it, I stayed up. There's little moments where, like, I talk about being tired because of my kids, but when I have to actually, like, break it down, I'm not tired because of my kids. I'm tired because Max gets centrally kissed by his boy at 1130 at night and then I stay up till one 30, reading all the replies and people roasting Max.

That's why I'm really tired, that's the problem.

He's just trying to claw back a little tiny bit of self-respect after having to shave his face because Hank beat him. So he starts live stream, he's not live streaming, he takes the video and he's getting his loser stench all over the heat. I was so fucking mad at Max for putting his loser-ness and the entire Philly Sports fan thing onto the Miami heat. Completely fucked everything up at the end.

He had no business doing that. I'm glad again, I'm glad he did what happened tonight, I'm glad he did so.

Tonight, we had a little word on the part of my take text thread. Before the game, you didn't even say thank you yet. Thank you, Max. I asked Max to start rooting for the Celtics because I can't have him rooting for Miami. I need him rooting for the Celtics in order to fully support our friend Jake in the Miami heat.

And yeah, maybe my $10,000. I almost said the B word investment that I had. Uh, but Max, it was I. w. I just couldn't believe what I saw. I was like, Why is Max? why is Max doing this?

Why is the old time on for Sarah? Yeah, putting that up, but.

Hashtag Boston Celtics, which I don't think I've ever seen anyone hashtag the entire team name. But hold on, timeout, timeout. I'm going to take a a Eric Spolstra timeout, where he just walks on the court and demands a timeout. Which I is the most power move of all time. I realized what just happened here. Hank just did a really good job of deflecting what was going to be the sadness of Hank onto Max, which I'm happy.

We took that detour, but why don't we go back to Hank? I do after after me, I need to hear from Max, I need to hear about the next morning. Or, like, when it set in that, you know, okay, yeah.

Tell us that video of his boy kissing him on the cheek. Did you know the kiss happened? Uh, I don't think I knew that.

And like, part of that made it, made it feel like it was going to be a win for me. And I was like, I need to capture this moment of of this, of this win. Like, I don't get these often.

Yeah, you were trying.

Oh, you'll never forget that. So then, yeah.

He's that guy.

Um, yeah, but I had to post a video, it was a funny video.

I didn't have to post the video. What did he say after? Did he explain the kiss? Did he say anything? No, he, like, still hasn't given me an explanation for why he did it.

I think he just saw that I was recording and kiss and then, like, it was like, it'll be so funny if I. If I, in his mind ruined this video with a kiss, and he did, he made the video, yeah, but he did the opposite in your eyes.

He did, Oh, he's a hero like I.

What like, does he do well, as in his profession? Yeah, he's residential real estate, okay?

But I'm asking, like, like, what, what do PFT? And I have to put up to have him just walk behind you and kiss you all the time? Uh, that's a good question, I'd.

Have you ever kissed him back? Uh, obviously not. I didn't even know that's not obvious.

Wait, wait, wait, wait. It also makes it worse that he looks so much similar to me, but just a better, much better eyebrows. Yeah, his eyebrows are insane. he gets those eyebrows done.

Yeah, I'll, I'll put that out there to the world. He gets those eyebrows.

No, that's, I mean, this is just a that's, that's fan fiction made up by you. I've never been that. I've been on every stream, I've done every stream, I've answered, on every single podcast.

I'm happy when they win, I'm sad when they lose. If that, if that's wrong, I don't want to be right. I don't know what you want me to say. Sad, slash mute.

What does that mean? Was I sad? Slash mute tonight? No, because you knew the fire was on, you knew you had to show up. We did that in the stream.

Next follow-up question Um, that was a biased question.

Objection? I wasn't biased, I was just asking a question. It's just factor.

Yep, great, great player, great career. Uh, but you saw it like?

He just was old, uh, and then he would. All of a sudden. I'll have it as this incredible knack of, like, being like 25 year old Al Horford when he would. He blocked Jimmy Butler at the rim, like, insane shit, uh. Al Horford's old Jalen Brown does not know how to dribble.

I don't know if that's something he's going to learn. And then I mean, Jason Tatum, Obviously, I think Jason Tatum probably smells the best coming out of this run, just because he did have moments where he was.

Getting injured in this game, but where do you go? And Marcus Smart, I don't know. Do you keep rolling out the same thing year after year and not getting over the hump?

Yeah, I mean, the Jalen Brown thing is interesting just because of the Super Max, like if, if they give them the Super Max. And you know, him and Tatum will be by far the most like paid two players in the whole league. He can't dribble, he. That was tonight.

When, when Tatum gets injured, uh, you kind of need Jalen Brown to go off. He tried, he took a lot of shots, he didn't make a lot of.

Turnovers, a lot of turnovers. He's so young, that's. It's just the Super Max thing is where it gets complicated. I think, I think, I think you explore, I think there's some exploring that has to be done.

Okay, coaching, I think you have to look at the roster. I don't think you touched Tatum, I really don't think you you touch Jalen Brown, but if you know, they can figure something out.

Do you think you learned how to dribble eventually? Cause this did happen last year, too, it did happen last year, the free throws happened last year.

The free throws happened.

When you're this young of a team, but it's almost like the early, you know, the magic with with Shaq and Penny. It's like, why would you split them up just because they're so young? Like they're so young. They went to the finals.

They went to the Eastern Conference finals, I went to Game seven, obviously two disappointing years. But you're in a weird blow it up with two N.B.A. all-star players that are like both under 26. No, you're in a weird spot. Because the Celtics, if you roll out the Celtics exactly the same, they're still a top five team in the N.B.A. I think that's confidently.

You can say that they have two incredibly talented young guys. But there does feel like it's like running into a brick wall a little bit without at least some tweaks to the.

It's the same.

Well, he did, but that was a weird. He would still be the coach if he could just not.

So.

But if you actually put up his resume next to Email Doka, it's not that dissimilar. Like they went, I think, what? The Celtics last year, uh, they swept the nets in the first round, then they went seven, then they went seven and then they got they lost in the finals. I mean, this year obviously they went six in the first round, but the seven and seven they they came up short tonight. But it wasn't like, I think, I think, what? Missoula, one more regular season games. I'm just saying, like, if you look at it just objectively, both resumes, they're very similar.

And the team is obviously very, very talented.

Although Missoula got him back from.

At the end of game, three was bad. That's a position where, like a good coach can at least drag effort out of guys in a game. Three when you're looking like you're about to go down three. Nothing in a series that you should win, that you're a big time favorite to win. I think a decent coach. At least get some effort out of those guys at the time, I'm just saying.

You just, you spend the whole day exploring on the Jersey shore on a Saturday night. Yeah, just explore, yeah.

I started, yeah, I started trying to, you know, connect some dots, see, see, what pieces we, what we can do. If there's a good, if there's a good move, you make it, but you don't have to force anything. I don't think, I don't think they like, they don't have to force anything. Like you said, if they come back, yeah, they're a top five team.

Yeah, yeah, no, I. It's a weird, it's a weird spot to be in. If you're like, no, that you have a chance to be competing for titles. But also know that something is a little off, that something needs to change a little bit to get over that hump. It's got to make shots.

Yeah, it's a make or miss league. Uh, I have a couple more questions for Hank. Do you have a couple more PFt? you have any more for Hank?

Okay, uh, Hank, do you think that Butler is Michael Jordan's son? No, but not a secret child. Why not?

So you're not anything, anything is 0 chance. No, okay, so there's a chance.

Billy just perked up.

I was going to say, I haven't seen these pictures.

No, I wish I don't know what you know, the difference between the N.FL and the N.B.A. is. But Patrick Mahomes fucked his ankle up and he went into halftime and they they juiced him up with some of the strongest shit ever. He came out and he was fine. I was hoping that at halftime like that, they were going to, you know, make that same call, get him that same same juice. And he looked more hurt in the second half than the first.

I was.

Yeah, a shot miracle. Yeah, it is. Jimmy Butler did turn his ankle, like, by my count, 700 times in the last five weeks. Um, it, I don't know. Maybe Jason did like it, he did look very injured.

I will say that like, you can't, you can't be like, Oh, he, he. He looked fine and he just didn't show up like he looked injured. I just don't. We see sprained ankles a lot and it's game seven, okay?

That's what, what? What's wrong with what I said? I don't. It sounds like you're injured or say like, I'm just it's game seven. Leave it all out on the floor. He literally did. I simply would have wanted it more.

Yeah, I would have, I would have taped up my ankle.

I have talked some shit and, like I said, the you know.

Yeah, I mean, the first of all. You expect them in the beginning of the series to go to the championship, like that's an expectation.

You did have the quote that you went and scouted a conference second round semifinals, the Knicks in the heat. Being like, how does the how? How do we lose to either of these teams? I said, It's hard not to watch these two teams and not think about the finals, which was fair. The game was trash. And so you expect to win the series before the series starts and you go down three, nothing. And then when it's like, we can do this again. 28 to three. 2004 Red Sox 2023 Celtics. This would be amazing.

Max got kissed. This is going to be so funny. Like it, it went, you know, it's a double, it's a double. What about, um, is there a feeling like, cause you going into this game, you had the same feeling of like, you're going to do it, cause you've done it? Now that the shine is off a little, does it? Does it give you hesitation next time you're trying to do something like this?

No, no, no, no, so you're unflappable in that regard. Yeah, you got it, you got to fight.

Okay, there's no loser creeping in your brain. No, they again. It'd be one thing if they lost, or it'd be one.

Thing. They beat themselves like they did not play a game that you needed to play in Game seven to win. Like it wasn't even the like the heat. He just hit their shots. The Celtics missed everything they had good.

They had in the first half, they had way better opportunities and they.

Damn, it's a long ass time, that's tough.

Yeah, so you gotta be feeling very conflicted right now. On one hand, the heat one and PFT one is bet, on the other hand. Hank lost. And he's your friend, so you kind of don't wish you had this, right?

Nope, this is the perfect scenario, you know why?

This is great, we're going to be playing a lot of golf together.

No, I'm talking to, I'm talking about PFT, oh.

Max What do you think the fixes are for yourself? I can't describe again. It sucks because they lost.

Um, first, they've got to blow it up. How many times can you get close? I mean, as a Celtics fan, I can not stand watching this team get so close year after year and then falling short. It's bullshit. You didn't even shoot 40 from the field a game seven to go to the finals.

Bullshit. I can tell Max is very upset. I mean, you got to do something, we've got to change something where this is Boston.

We're about winning championships in Boston, all right, none of this, none of this close shit next year.

We're supposed to title town Max, we are supposed to be title town.

That's the one thing about Boston is, we're fucking title town baby. It'd be so perfect if the Celtics listened to Max's advice and did some drastic moves. Blew the team up but made great moves and then came back and beat the fuck out of the six.

Game six ending and have it be three, three after you have all these chances to close it out. I did think, though, when Spolster came to the TO to the press conference after game six. And he was like, it actually sounded like, like the like, the dude online who's like, trying to sell real estate or 10 X or whatever. We were like, you don't even believe this bullshit. He was like, it's just great competition, like we look forward to being able to compete one more time.

As crazy as it sounds, though, like it was smart of him. Because you have to just essentially just pretend none of that happened and go play game seven. Whereas, like, I know, personally, if I were the coach of the team that had just lost like that and it was three, three. I'd have been like, it's over, we're dead, we shouldn't even show up. Fuck this.

Like, this is all bullshit and cry into a little puddle and just melt away as all the reporters at try to ask me questions.

So Caleb Martin was just unreal. I think he was the he was the worst of the Martin twins, right? I think his brother got drafted, Caleb didn't, but then Caleb now is about to make like a hundred million dollars, just based on the series. What he was able to do out there.

One fun thing about him because I know you used to watch his games when he was on. Yeah, he was a double, double. Wolf pack, you went to N.C. State, he was on their wolf pack, he went wolf pack to wolf pack. In college, yeah.

He's awesome, he like.

Cause Derek White didn't, was like he. He tried to will the Celtics back into this game. But yeah, the heat like I, I just don't like. As as much as you like. Want to give them? I don't know how how to give them the proper credit for. Because, like, at one point, they kind of blew this. But to be able to get off the mat in game seven and have that kind of performance was incredible. Like they look so gassed, Jimmy looks so gassed, so like Derek White at the beginning of this series, Jimmy was eating them alive. By game six, Derek White was completely shutting him down. He thought like, there's no way that he are going to be able to win this game.

And what they showed tonight, heat culture, it is, it's as thriving as thriving could be. There's never been a worse call than when I said, he culture was that, yeah, very much alive.

I just.

They've got a great system in place for that, but they're just good and they scare me a little bit. As you know, if you're if you're watching the Nuggets and you're rooting for the Nuggets, which I think that we are. With the exception of our darling Jake. Um, the heat should scare you. It's not about them being a fluke anymore, it's not about anything weird going on.

They're not getting like lucky breaks here and there. Although obviously Tatum's injury on the first play of the game, that was a good break for the heat. But the heater. Just a fucking good basketball team all around, and they've got guys that step up when their stars aren't playing well. And I'm I'm a little bit afraid of the heat in the finals. As an as a long time three-year Nuggets fan, they scare me just because they got they got some bullshit.

Is just completely unflappable and there's nothing that can bother them. And I I do think it starts with Spoe. And Jimmy Butler, and Jimmy Butler did show up tonight where it looked like he had ran out of gas and he had one last push. And yeah, I mean, Jake, what?

I really thought the Celtics were going to win this game just based off momentum, but that's culture, culture. Spose spode heat right after they lost game six. He's like, we want to tip this thing off right now. Like they were not backing down.

I knew they wouldn't lay an.

No, I mean, me and Dave texts after games. we just texted after the game. And then you say, Well, you're like, wouldn't it be crazy if we went to No? No, no.

We only, we only texted after the game, was like, that was crazy on real wind.

Technically, the Celtics have yet to win a game since that kiss has been posted.

Kiss of death for for I mean, I guess as a Celtics fan, it would be the kiss of death.

All right, when I tried to be a LeBron James stand for like, a week and it just goes against.

Heat nuggets. I'm very excited.

I know that the ratings police are going to be so mad. They also going to be mad about the Stanley Cup final, which we have the Knights, the Vegas Knights going up against the Florida Panthers.

I was worried, Yeah, no, that's a good point. Yeah, we go nuts, yeah.

I so, we did put in the synopsis on Friday. I wrote it like one in the morning and I was like, Stanley Cup final set. Heard a lot of people being like, not true. So thank you to the Vegas Knights for showing up tonight and winning six to nothing. And it was never a doubt. So we had almost like it was crazy because as the Stars win tonight, we would have had another three.

Oh, come back, go game seven. But the Knights were too good. We're done with this shit, stop fucking around. Yeah, I mean, the Knights, the Knights are a fun.

He looks fantastic. The two cities with maybe the most cocaine done per capita, Vegas, Miami. Playing against each other and saying like, Oh, Brooks, will books will be on his best behavior. That didn't have anything to do.

Nothing. Were you just scrolling? What were you doing? Let us know, see something, say something.

I saw something, say something, I just was, I saw something, you say something.

Two weeks, yeah, so we we got to be careful with that talk. Okay, okay.

It's a kiss video, it's got to stay, I mean, it's staying, it doesn't matter we're.

And I would just send them the video. I don't think it was that funny if you don't know the whole backstory, but I still was like, you got to see this, watch this. Yeah, the posting, it was really just the.

But the second that I saw that Max put that video up, I was like, Okay, yeah, that's. That's the guy that I pissed off. That's the bag you're in, my scapegoat, you.

And then we'll get to our great interviews again, we're gonna do succession. End of the Show Tuesday and Friday shows this week. So if you want to save one of the interviews for Wednesday, uh, because there won't be a new show on Wednesday. But we'll be back for game one of the N.B.A. finals, uh, who's back?

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It's hot coors light, we'll cool you down. ice cold coors light. Okay, who's?

I have a couple, my first one is a cinderella. Okay, this is in college baseball. Tulane finished the regular season 15 and 39.

And then they won the AC Conference tournament and they're going to the tournament NCAA. You know, who loves Tulane? Don't don't say it too soon for the game, too soon. But that's the, you know, that's usually hear that in basketball, but it's always 15 and 39, 15 and 39. Yeah, holy fuck.

Who'd they beat in the Championship? I don't know. Well, they're probably going to play like rice or something, maybe, you know, maybe shock the world. That's insane.

15 and 39 is pretty fucking crazy. That's a bad team. Yeah, that's a really bad team. Uh, then my other who's back of the week, uh, shots. This is a little PSA, or like something I feel like we've talked about before. But with the with the move to Chicago, me and were out.

And I do truly, you know, meeting a lot of AWs. Everyone's saying well for Chicago after Chicago. A lot of people were also, you know, buying, coming over with shots. And I personally met a point in my life where, like, I try and just not even drink liquor when I'm out. But I feel bad because people are just, you know, it's a nice gesture and I appreciate the gesture. But I think I'm just going to have to start turning them down. Or if people want to buy a shot, just buy a shot and we'll cheers and you take it, but I feel bad turning them down, so just don't. I can't be drinking 10 shots a night, you just go ahead.

My rule of thumb is no.

It tastes like the Devil's come, It's awful. It does taste like gasoline. It tastes like if somebody threw up gasoline and then re-drank it. That's what Malort tastes like. I'm still. I will buy myself some Malort occasionally as a treat. But I have to set a hard and fast rule because it's quickly getting out of hand.

I will not be drinking any more shots of Malort that people buy from me. I can't do it, I will be dead within a month.

It honestly feels like a drink that somebody made up as a joke.

Never, I'll never take a free shot from anyone because of that. Like I. It actually was at Declan's for the Oshie game, the USA versus Russia game. At fucking seven in the morning, I had to be peeled off a well street, cause I took so many free shots.

So just if you make it a, if you make it a rule, it's no hurt feelings, right? That's the thing, and I do appreciate it. It's just awkward when they come over like, here's a shot and I'm like, I don't really want this, but I also don't. You know, I don't want to seem like an asshole, but that's that's kind of what I'm getting at. It's just a hard and fast rule.

Cause you can't break it either. Like, I don't. Someone tries to buy me a shot and say, Hey, thank you so much, I appreciate it. I don't take shots, yeah.

Buy a shot for yourself, we'll cheers. Yeah, can we add one more rule? yeah.

Buy billy shots, closed bottles and cans only. What do you think you're gonna get roofied by a?

And he just handed me a glass of chardonnay and we had to chug it, and I just went right outside and puked my guts out. So no shard bombs either. Walk you up to you and sharding shard bomb. I mean, the problem is you have to get. You have to do the shard bomb once. Because when someone says, Hey, shard bomb, that's a cool name.

And you're like, a glass of fucking white wine, okay, how bad could it be? Really bad? That's the, uh, the Bachelorette party version of Icing your Bro.

I had to, I had to respect the ingenuity of a.

I'll take a bomb, sure, uh?

Great who's back Hank? Uh, my who's back is live Golf. Because Live Golf is tweaking their rule format that they have. They are now instituting relegation and promotion in live Golf League, which is great.

So what they what they're doing is they're having players that finish between 25th and 44th, fourth. Uh, they will be in the open zone, becoming free agents, where they can move between teams or leave. Live golf if they're essentially live golf, just invented the PGA Tour, so you're not, like, guaranteed a spot on live golf.

Other players can play well and then get moved up into live.

Don't, Jake, it's like, Pietro or something. You lie, you lie, Peter, you lie.

Yeah, are we worried about our fourth ace? No, he's, he's actually probably top top, so you take him over. what other? what? what ace would you take him over?

Maybe Pat Perez, okay, and Dustin Johnson and Bubba, okay.

Okay, so power rank your aces. Uh, DJ number one, he's the goat great guy.

Uh, DJ Bubba, you line pepper as I guess, Oh, wow, okay. uh, all right.

My who's back is DeAndre Hopkins? free agent Deandre Hopkins got caught. What team is going to take them? Uh, that was a nice little. NFL is still king. When DeAndre Hopkins got cut. I think it was like, Friday.

Uh, what do you think, Pft? Where's he going to go? I mean, Ravens, I mean, he was rumored the Patriots were talking to him the everyone. I hate how it now has become like any really good player gets cut or is like on the block and they're like chiefs.

He'll take.

Yeah, it'd be sick, but I'm just happy for for Hopkins like this is his Super Bowl. Getting cut from the Cardinals must be awesome if you're a good player and you get to just pick where you want to end up.

Next, like, he's, he's left two of the most unstable franchises in the past four years. Those are two great days that he has. When he finds out that he's leaving the Texans, he's fucking pumped, then he finds out that he's leaving the Cardinals.

He's probably psyched about that, too. I'm just happy for him.

Then it's all on you.

He wasn't getting a big contract, his mom was working as his agent and he had absolutely no help. At wide receiver, as his tradition for the Ravens, I just I. It would be weird to watch a Ravens game and see them have outstanding wide receivers all across the field. It wouldn't feel right.

I, I would, just I would love to see him on the bills, I think Bill's Super Bowl if they get.

Indoors, it's actually not. Oh, two more minutes, two more minutes, you got it.

Yep, Billy just got real banged up this weekend. Yeah, there was a moment where we were having a healthy debate in the kitchen. And I felt like I was just arguing with the South Park character because Billy was getting aggro. With his sunglasses on, he's like, It's fucking memorial.

No art imitates life anyway. Oh, I guess, because you are imitating. Yeah, I did that on a birthday.

Uh, so Derek, from More plates, more dates, who, uh, was the one that exposed Liver King for being on steroids? Uh, actually, he should come on the show. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Ask him about Ozempic, I will, and then, uh, so he basically, I know I know his cohost, great too, yeah.

Yeah, yeah, uh, basically. Arnold started talking about his steroid use, uh, for the first time, and talked about his cycle, and basically, he wasn't on that much steroids. Compared to a lot of guys today in bodybuilding, which just goes to show that he is the goat, okay?

So not as much steroids, yeah, which just shows that, according to him. Yeah, he had a, uh. Derek confirmed that this makes sense.

According to Like, what it was rumored to, Uh. But everyone thought that it was impossible that he could have done it like that. Got it, so he's still the goat, okay, and the Taliban?

Wait, the Taliban's back, why?

Nope, why? because it's fucking America, okay, but it's not Memorial Day.

Yeah, I'm still gonna.

They're just acting up shit, they just get. They invaded Iran.

Yeah, I think it's just like five years, a little flare up, I think it's just like the.

The ultimate bro trip. Don't think about bringing your chick, yeah. And then eventually you can only watch your guys like, do a bunch of pull-ups in the desert. You got to eventually go do something about it.

Well, imagine that was like U.S. military equipment that just left, and now the first part of that. You know, when your buddies get drunk and it's like a college campus, and then there's like, like, excavators. I actually do, I actually do, I actually, I actually know.

Yeah, when you think about it like a drunk 19.

And then we're going to get to Michael Malone and Big J. My, who's back?

Are you guys going to stop?

It was also Friday. Oh yeah, so that is true that I mean, I was like, it is Friday. Jake, let's go to TGI Friday. Yeah, also, we just been playing lacrosse all day. And I really just come up to me with a big cup of ice water and just keep refilling it.

We did this. Yeah, yeah, and you wanted the booth, yeah.

Yeah, so stay tuned for some content in Albany. our friend dudes will be joining us. we'll be there Thursday Friday. Is he in a wheelchair?

He might be, he's.

He broke his ankle at alumni lacrosse. That's like, you're, you're just it's, there's no glory in it, you're just only going out to just break the you. Basically, I mean, PFT. When you play in your rugby game like, you're essentially just playing hoping you don't get injured, that's the only win.

No, it's it to me, the feeling of.

So, like, at the end of the game, if I, if I walk not in an ambulance, I'm like, okay, that was an awesome game. I'm so happy to do that. But yeah, you should, not you. It's really the dumbest thing ever. Because somebody in those games, whether it's lacrosse, rugby, any sort of like high contact sport. Some old guy always gets like, devastatingly injured in that. And then they have to go back to their real job, and there's nothing worse.

I mean, at Barstool, you can get away with a lot and it's not the exact same. But if you go back into a real office job and you're in like a sling.

A broken nose and people are like, What is this person? They're not. This is not a serious individual. Wait, Billy, do you have a black eye right now?

And that's why I'm wearing glasses.

Who the fuck comes back for Memorial Day weekend without a?

Yeah, who? Who won the women's?

There's no way to know, there's no way to want to know. Wait a second. Well, no, Jake said.

Okay, all right, let's get to our interviews. We have coach Mike Malone, uh, and then big Jay Oakerson, uh. First quick ad.

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The F.D.A. does not approve compounded drugs, nor does it verify their safety or effectiveness. Go right now to Four Hymns.com Slash PMT to get started today. Okay, here he is. Head coach of the Denver Nuggets, Michael Malone.

Okay, we now welcome on a very special guest. It is head coach of the Western Conference champion Denver Nuggets, Michael Malone. Thank you so much for joining us, coach. Uh, we wanted to give the nuggets there, you know, their shine, because there's been a lot of talk about the media not giving the nuggets their shine.

So we thought having you all would be great. So first of all, congrats on the sweep. And my first question is, what do you think about LeBron, potentially retiring?

You're going to have a fun time, so thanks for having me on. Yeah, as far as the Lakers sweep, yeah.

I really can't comment.

And how quickly are you going to lose your voice when you get into the NBA finals in Game one?

Eight years now and to be a part of a team and a franchise that's gotten better and better and better, gotten healthier, allowed us to get to this point. It's been a it's been a real fun ride to this point, but we're not satisfied. Yeah, it really has been awesome watching your.

If people are, I know there's a lot of ratings talk already out there. If you like watching fun basketball, you should love watching this Nuggets team play because they're very entertaining. Was there a time, though, over the last few years, where you just weren't sure? That? The health of all your guys was going to line up to a point where it was going to turn you guys?

And we went in there and won that game and Aaron Gordon's impact, the defense on Kauai. And after that game, I know for me. I said, if we can stay healthy, we've got a chance to win it this year. Unfortunately, as we all know, shortly thereafter, Jamal suffered his ACL injury and then the following year, Michael Porter missed 73 games. But the last time we were our core was fully healthy, was the bubble?

And we made it to the Western Conference finals and we lost to the Lakers. And so, you know, if you want to achieve something great, you have to go through failure. And I think our guys, like every other great team and player in the past, we've gone through adversity. And I think being healthy, staying together, having tremendous ownership in front office that have remained patient have allowed us to be in this position. But I knew once we got back being healthy, adding a few pieces like KCP, like Bruce Brown, drafting. Well, we'd be back in the Western Conference finals, fighting for our first appearance in the N.B.A. finals.

And that's what we've been able to do to this point.

And then, as you mentioned, next thing, you know, I was being thrown in the air. And I can honestly say that's the first time it's ever happened, but a really cool moment. I've so many people send me that video, but I think it just speaks to the bond that I have with the entire Jokic family.

Had a big hug with Jamal Murray's father, Roger. We've been with these guys so much and we spend so much time with them, not just on the court, but off the court. I remember one year I flew to Toronto to go with Jamal Murray to a Cleveland Cavalier Toronto Raptor playoff game. Just so he could feel what it was like. And now, all these years later? Jamal Murray averages 32 points a game in the Western Conference finals and is a huge part of us getting to our first N.BA finals.

Thankfully, security got to him before that happened. But they are passionate, they love their brother, they love the nuggets and thankfully I'm on their good side. So I know that I know they're on my corner, which is great to know.

Because you can't, you know? People were like, Oh, we knew he was going to be this guy. They're lying. He was a second round draft pick, you know, he. He had to get in better shape and learn the game a little bit more. But was there? What was the point where you're like, Okay, this guy, his ceiling is best basketball player in the.

And not one point in time in Vegas did I say, Hey, we have a franchise player. You know, it was just it, just no one saw that to your point. But as we got into his rookie season and he lost some weight, got in shape, we had some injuries.

We played a game in San Antonio with Tim Duncan still playing, and Nicole went out there and put up like 25 points, 13 rebounds, seven or eight assists. And that's when, for me, like, the light bulb kind of went, Wait a minute. He just did this against one of the greatest players of all time, one of the most well-coached teams and best coaches in N.B.A. history. And Greg Popovich, we may have something special here.

And it really kind of, I think a defining moment for our franchise was year two and reinserting him back into the starting lineup. As our starting center. And our our trajectory from that point in time just took off, our offense took off. He became the focal point of everything that we did. Because his innate ability to make everyone around him better. And the fact that he takes the most joy in making plays for others.

You know, we have kind of we identified that, and the rest has been history. To this point, it really is like so much.

I know you got this like, you're going to get it, you're get, get the ball, bring up the ball, everyone's going to collapse. You find someone or you score like you can do everything. Do you? Do you ever say, like, no play, just go do it?

Like, you know, you're going to get the right look. And I think a great example of that was in a game three against the Lakers fourth quarter. And he grabs the clipboard before I get in there and he says, Listen, me and Jamal are going to play this two man game. You are the three guys.

Just get out of the way, be ready and let us play our game. And we did it, like five or six straight possessions and pulled away from the Lakers. So, uh, and that's one thing I have to say about Nicole. That in the eight years that he continues to get more comfortable with is being more vocal, being a leader, using his voice to in those moments, not not keeping it within. But what do you have to say, because you're out there and we all trust you? And um, so that's just one of many examples where, hey man, I know. In this situation. We're going to get the ball to Nicola in the low post and the high post on the elbow, on the wing and let him make a play.

Like, he's done time and time again.

We told him to his face he was wrong. He's a numbers guy, we're eyeball guys, we know ball.

We knew that, that those plays, that highlight reel, wasn't telling the full story. Do you read any of the naysayers out there about?

Do you guys use that as motivation, or are you guys just completely locked in on what you're doing?

And the whole premise of the article was one game against San Antonio and Yako Purtle and how Nicola is not a good defender. And we have no chance of winning at a high level because of that. Yeah, well, we're starting the finals on Thursday, so I have a feeling that we're going to win.

And Nicola has shown that he can be a good enough defender and we as a team can be a good enough defender. And in eight years, I think we've taken some of that perceived disrespect, if you will, and used it as motivation. I think this year, for the first time that I've ever been with Nicola. I do think the negativity around the MVP narrative became somewhat of a distraction and was very negative. And I think it really turned him off and a lot of other people off. I can't speak for you guys in that matter.

So I think there are times that we use it as motivation. But at the same time, we have to spend as much energy as possible in trying to win the N.B.A. finals. Now try to win a championship. And if we're worried about all the other things, that's going to distract us from concentrating on the task at hand.

For him, he tends to get his arms cut more easily than any player in maybe N.BA history. It always looks like after the first quarter he's been handling feral cats and just gotten scratched up with blood everywhere. Do you have a cut guy that's on retainer? That just is?

You need somebody to help him out. So Nicole is a warrior man and people always talk about his lack of athleticism, but what they don't remember is OK. Game four against the Lakers. He played 45 and a half minutes. There was a game against Portland, a four-overtime game a few years ago, where I played him 63 minutes.

And he's able to, maybe he's like secretariat. He's big into horses, he can run for days, he may not jump over people, but his conditioning is at an elite level.

And you're right, he looks like he's been through a war every time he comes into a locker room after a game.

It was like a practice day for the horse and so we went to the track. It was me, Nicole, the horse and their trainer. And obviously I'm sitting in. I don't know what you call it, the buggy, the thing behind it.

It's that kind of a horse, you don't sit on the horse and he goes, I coach, just take it nice and easy. This is like a warm up, I'm like, OK.

And I get on the horse and all of a sudden I think I'm like, Ben Hur, I'm like whipping the reins, let's go. So we come around. The first time he's yelling at me, Coach, you're going too fast.

And then I went one more lap, even faster, and he was really mad because coach never riding my horse again. So I did it one time. You can't take it.

You can't.

But Jamal Murray, specifically, has been out of this world. Good. There was a story that came out recently that when he tours ACL, he actually asked you like, is this mean? I'm, like, done with the nuggets? and you like, walk me through your watching him tears ACL? And having to deal with, like, all right, we're missing this guy, he hasn't been able to reach his full potential. And how you mentally were able to get him, build him back up to a point where he could have easily won the MVP of the Western Conference finals.

He's been that electric and he also is now getting like the the Superstar playoff kind of treatment. Where we saw him in the bubble and we see him this year like he shows up for these big, big moments.

And more importantly.

And you know, when he said to me, coach, like, Are you guys going to trade me? That really hit me. And it was an emotional conversation because of, you know, everything we have gone through together and where we were at. And I just tried to reassure him in that moment and every day after that, no, like, we're, we're not thinking of you as damaged goods, you're, you're our guy.

And not only are you going to come back from this injury, Jamal, you're going to come back a better player. You're going to attack your rehab, you're going to come back better. And I think he's proven that. And I think this year. The biggest game of the season for me and Jamal's confidence and getting back to that level was we played, I think, Portland on December 8th and Jamal hits a game winner over Jeremy Grant.

And you could see, almost like him, take a deep breath and remind himself, Hey, I'm a really good basketball player. I went through a really long journey getting back to this point and there were some dark days in that journey and coming back from the ACL injury. But he attacked it and all we try to do as an organization. All I try to do as a head coach was support him and show him how much we loved him, not rush him back. A lot of people wanted him to come back last year in the playoffs.

You know, is he ready, is he not? And I wasn't going to push him, you know. I wanted him to feel really comfortable about stepping back on that court and that happened this year.

And to your point, you know, Nicole was amazing. The Western Conference finals, he won MVP. But you can make for Jamal 32 points a game in a fourth game sweep, and he has 30 points in the first half of game three and a game two. We had 23 points in the fourth quarter alone to allow us to win that game. So just thankful that he's back healthy and in a really good place mentally, and that's.

But the the mental side of sports and being able to keep your guys mentally in it when they're not maybe participating on the on the court. That's gotta be a tough part of the of the coaching job that people don't really see.

You can't touch a ball or do anything but like, be there and be a good teammate. Man. That sucks, yeah, but so we try to do, we try to get him involved in the process. And so every game we play in regular season, we do the same thing in the playoffs.

We watch a personnel edit, so we're getting ready to play Miami, so one of our coaches will take our team through a personnel edit. Talking about each of their players, their tendencies, what their strengths are. So we started having Jamal do that last season, Jamal, you present to our team and it was just a way to keep him involved.

Where? Okay, I can't play the game, but I can still try to help my guys out. I can, you know, come in and sit in on a coach's meeting and so trying to do things like that young man who was going through a really tough time. Just keeping him mentally engaged and letting him know. You're not playing right now, but you're still a part of this, like, you're still going to be a part of this moving forward. And I do think that helped him kind of getting through that, that really tough year, all of last season.

We don't know how long the Heat Celtic Series is going to go. What's your strategy right now in terms of rest versus rust? Do you have guys competing in practice? do you have simulated scrimmages? Are you giving the guys time off just to recuperate?

How are you handling the layoff between now and the finals?

Back late from L.A. yesterday was a a player development. Treatments lift kind of a day. We're going to get on the floor here in a little bit and we don't know what playing yet. So the next three or four days are going to be just about the Denver Nuggets, you know, kind of cleaning up all the things.

For the first, we're 12 and three so far, so after 15 games, what are the things that we have to clean up, offensively, defensively, special situations, whatever it may be? And then, at whatever point in time, we finally know who our opponent is, we, we know we'll have three or four days to get ready for game one, to prepare for their personnel and their plays and the walk through and what our game plan is going to be.

We're meeting as a staff every day, talking about both Miami and Boston, just to get ready for each team and what they present. But it's a challenge because we played every other day, our guys are in peak conditioning and in a rhythm right now. And then all of a sudden you take that away and that's our biggest challenge.

How do we maintain our conditioning? how do we maintain our rhythm while not playing games? And it's it's hard to do. When I was an assistant in Cleveland, we have the same situation. We swept around first round, we swept the second round and our next opponent had both gone to a seven games. So we had like an eight nine day layoff for both of those.

And I think it affected us kind of getting into the Eastern Conference finals, but our guys will be ready, I have no doubt about that.

You know, when you're watching him in practice and being like, Yeah, this guy is special, he's going to be one of the best players in basketball. Well, yeah, because with Steph.

The ball was just as U.B. Brown said many years ago. Shooting makes up for a multitude of sins, and one thing Steph Curry can do is shoot and score. The basketball, as we've all come to see in the years since, they won all those championships. And then you draft a guy like Clay Thompson, and then we drafted a guy like Draymond Green and Harrison Barnes, and you can see the makings of something special. I wound up leaving there to go to Sacramento to be the head coach.

But when I left to go there, my second year in Golden State. We upset Denver in the first round and we gave San Antonio a hell of a series in the second round. So you saw all the makings of a team that had championship DNA. And obviously, as they continue to add to that, those three or four core guys, the rest has been history. And obviously they've been almost like a dynasty these last 10 years.

That makes them so special. Yeah, I think the truly defining.

I think LeBron James and Nicole Jokic are very, very similar. And when the eye test, you say, Hell, no. Like, one's a great athlete, freakish and the other guy can't jump over the Sunday newspaper. But to get away from that, both those guys, their IQ, their unselfishness, their ability to make everyone better and impact the game. Rebounding, scoring, playmaking and just making timely plays and seeing things before everybody else sees them.

And now Nicole for eight. Those two guys, I think, are incredibly similar once you get past the.

Jokic and LeBron both make the pass, they start passing the ball before their guy is even open to receive the pass. They truly do see that before it ever happens.

So that's the best part about playing with him. The guy is so unselfish, he just wants to win, doesn't care about the. He's almost embarrassed by the attention at times, and he's just such a selfless superstar. And feel very, very fortunate to have an opportunity to coach a guy who's like that.

I like the analogy, too.

That like spot is already has.

And he's he, like LeBron, has seen every conceivable that you can imagine. And the one thing you love about Nicola. Like, after I think it was game one against the Lakers, we're up 1-0 and everybody talked about the Lakers. They're in a great place. They're down 1-0. But they had Rui Hachimora, guard Nicola and it went really well.

Like, he's had the defensive player of the year type players draped all over him and he's going to find a way to beat you. Whether it's scoring or finding the open man for Jamal, for Michael, for KCP, whoever it is, to make the shot. So yeah, when Nicola has the ball in that low post, on that elbow, that defense has a decision to make. And Nicola is going to make the right read every time.

Well, it's a it's a two-part question. But I feel like every championship team has to have an X factor to win. And that might just be a term we make up in the media of an X factor. Which one of these X factors is more important to your team? The altitude or Rocky? The mascot being able to drain half court shots on top of a 50 foot ladder, throwing the ball over his head.

But yeah, so Rocky is definitely important. But I think you can see that on the other team's face when they come to Denver and they play in this altitude. That first quarter, you can see guys huffing and puffing. And it's something from Doug Moe, the greatest coach in Nugget's history, his teams back in the day, trying to outscore you getting up and down. I got a great message from Dan Issel the other day, one of the all-time greats in Denver Nugget history, saying, Hey, run the Lakers off the floor, keep running, keep running, keep running. Built into our city. But I can never discount the importance of Rocky.

What's your pregame routine? are you? do you? Do you get the butterflies as the game's about to tip off?

And we told him he should just go with it and be like, Yeah, I'm drinking piss before the game. Cause, listen, it's like the old saying, like, never get in a fight with a guy who's got nothing to lose. If you see the other coach drinking piss before a game, you're you're in trouble.

We've prepared our guys, we're ready for whatever comes our way. But I can't say I get nervous, you know? Like, where my heart is beating out my chest? It's, yeah. I don't think the N.B.A. finals will be any different. But I've never been there as a head coach, it was there as an assistant coach one time.