The Show Episode 541

More Masters Talk, NBA Series Parlay Play

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:52

You probably have a feeling why the host is here today just to do this show. Now, not here, I'm just letting you know now, we're not here to do a full show with a bunch of stuff and everything. There's a reason why. And that, of course, is now before everybody moans, we're here because the NBA playoffs are starting tomorrow. And you know what the host provides every year for this show. Our NBA playoff series parlay. Oh yeah. Oh yeah. Now we all know the host two years ago hit it big on his NBA series parlay. Now we had a couple rough years after that, but I've reviewed the series. I think I got some I got a great parlay series for everyone here to play. It can't get any easier than this series parlay this year, folks. It can't get any easier. That's the way I'm looking at it. But before we get to that, of course, we gotta talk about a couple other things. And y'all know this was coming. And I know all my listeners. I think I know all of them, but I knew this was coming. Your host. I gotta say, I'm very disappointed. For years we heard you on this show complain. Bad mouth talk down on golfer Rory Mackerel. Yet I tune into your Masters Review show, and the first thing you say is you were rooting for him. Talk about twists and turns listening to this show. That has to be the biggest twist the host has ever done. What's next, host? You're gonna say you like the Baltimore Ravens? I can't believe you are now a Rory fan and were rooting for him. It disappoints me that you were so standoffish of it. So against him. Yet here you are last Sunday rooting for Rory. I don't know, host, if I can continue to listen to this. I like someone who sticks to their opinions and doesn't flip-flop and go back and forth. There's enough of those guys already on TV. We don't need another one. Okay, all right. Okay. What's fair is fair. I understand what this guy's saying. So let me rephrase what I was trying to come across. And maybe because I had so much to talk about of the Masters on Sunday that I didn't make myself clear. Yes, I was rooting for Rory to win something. I gave you my reason why. Because once he won one, I don't like to see other guys win first ones. I like to see the same guys keep winning. I like to see the same guys keep winning Green Jackets, whether it's uh US Opens, whether it's you know PGA championships, and so on. Same I described it in football. Let's keep the same teams from you know winning all those okay. My opinion on Rory as a player has not changed. Okay, so let me make that clear. Was I rooting for him to win? Yes. But my opinion of him has not changed. Do I still think he's the number one crybaby on the PGA tour? Absolutely. Can I not stand the way he acts and talks about the live tour and other things that go on with the PGA tour? Absolutely. Okay? Dude, I didn't bring up this part, which has become big controversy this week. He was going down, or I'm sorry, he lives in Florida. He was going up and playing numerous practice rounds at Augusta for up to at the time he was playing there three weeks before the Masters tournament began. Now again, how is that fair to other players that played in the Masters? And is that acceptable to the rest of the players that could that competed in the tournament? Were they allowed to go play three weeks in advance? I don't know. Nobody's bringing that up. Of course, you know, some people like uh golf channels Brendel Shambly says, of course, he has absolutely every right to go and play three weeks in advance. Gary Player wanted to go out with his grandsons and play around, and Augusta denied him. And he's a three-time champion, and he's a starter of the opening ceremonies. They denied him playing. Yet, Rory got to fly up in his private jet, got to play the course, fly home, pick his daughter up from school. Rory got to go up there, play around with his father. His father's not a member of Augusta. His father's not a pro player. He got to enjoy and play around with his father on the course? Yeah, that's fair. So, Mr. Emailer, and don't get me wrong, there's seven or eight more of those same kind of emails. Complaining about the host rooting for Rory. I understand what the what the emailer and the listeners are coming and saying. How can the host all of a sudden turn and root and like Rory? Rooting and liking are two different things. Was I rooting for him? Yes. Do I like him?

unknown 7:10

No.

SPEAKER_00 7:12

No. I don't. I still like I said, just a few minutes ago, I still think the guy's a crying baby. I still think he's a he's a baby when it comes to everything. And the fact that it's, you know, again, this week is the RPC Heritage, and it's alleged and as I do the air quotes, elevated event, he's not playing in it. And he's supposed to play in it. He's not playing in it. Everybody else is playing in it. Scotty Sheffer's playing. He finished second. He's playing. So why can't Rory play in it? You know, he's supposed to be for the fans. He's supposed to be golf's number one guy to watch. Yet here's a tournament where he's supposed to be at and he's not. What if you bought tickets just to see Rory play? Knowing that he was going to play because it's an elevated event, and all players are required to play elevated events. But here's Rory. Because, you know, Rory's such a good guy not playing. So keep that in mind, too, when you think about how great of, you know, he played during uh you know at Augusta and winning back to back masters. Yes, it's a great accomplishment. Only four players have done it. Yes, it's his sixth major. It's great. 12th all time in majors wins. It's great. It's great for the golf, it's great for the sport, it's great for Rory. It doesn't mean I like the guy. Okay? Will I root for him to win three in a row? Oh, you're damn right I'll win a root for Rory to win three in a row next year. That would be great to see. History. Some you'll never see. Nobody's ever won three Masters in a row next year. Of course I'm gonna root for that. But hey, look at the ratings. Most people watch the Masters since 2013. They had 17 million people watching. They had a peak of 22 million people watching. So quite the accomplishment for uh CBS and the Masters to get that many viewers. And all because of Rory. I don't know if that many people would have watched. Say Rory wasn't in it on Saturday and Sunday. I don't know if people would have watched Scotty Scheffler battling it out with all those guys. I don't know what I don't know. I don't think the rating would be that high. We just we've recently had two Scotty Scheffler master wins, and the ratings weren't that high. So, you know, he's not moving the meter for the PGA. Only Rory. And everybody loves him. So that's what everybody's gonna watch. So the host is gonna comment on. I mean, that's that's that's what I'm here for. But uh yeah. Uh of course, the uh here we are talking golf again. I can I can hear the but host, I thought you were gonna talk about your NBA series playoff play. I thought you were gonna be here a little while. I am, I am. The other big golf controversy this week is the of course the host favorite, the live tour. Live tour held an emergency meeting on Wednesday with talks of the Live Tour going under and discontinuing. Piff, the uh funding where it comes from to fund the Live Tour was rumored to be pulling all funds, and that would leave the 57 golfers on the Live Tour without a tour to play on, and who knows where they will end up. Well, after all the rumors swirled and everything, CEO of the Live Tour came out and said they will finish the 2026 season. Anything beyond that will need to be discussed in the offseason. There's, I believe, eight tournaments left in this season of the Live Tour, five in the United States. They're playing uh this weekend in Mexico, all those guys. So be curious to see the attendance that's gonna be at the five uh events left in the United States. Be very curious to see how those are uh attended, how those are perceived, how those come out. We'll see what uh holds uh for the uh live tour here coming up. And you know, of course, a lot of people are wondering what's gonna happen to the live tour players. Well, they were offered an out, you know, three months ago. Uh Brooks Copecka is the only one who took it. Patrick Reed has uh left recently. He's eligible to come back to the PGA tour in August. So we'll see what his plans are. He's uh also said privately in another interview that he might just sit out the whole uh 26 season and come back and play on the 27th PGA tour. Of course, we just saw Patrick Reed. He had a uh very good Masters, he's able to play the Masters, he's a past champion, so he's able to play there. Uh he played well until he got to the weekend. So Patrick Reed is still trying to uh find his footing since leaving the Live Tour. So you could you could say what you want about the Live Tour. Uh again, this is just my opinion, and it's probably not a lot of people's opinion. I look at the Live Tour roster, I go down the the people, I recognize almost every name on the Live Tour. And I know they're a console switch on the PGA tour. I look at the PGA tour, and I just see a bunch of scrubs besides Scotty Scheffler and Rory. A bunch of bumps that have not done anything. So I don't know. That's just me. That's just my opinion. So where the Live Tour players end up uh after this season, I guess we're gonna wait and see uh if the funding is gonna be there for the live tour after this season. I guess that's gonna be a wait and see. They've already invested five billion dollars into the live tour. Wow, that's a lot that's a lot of money into a tour that's not doing well in TV ratings and attendance-wise. But uh, you know, it's lasted longer than a lot of people thought, but it may not last any longer after the 26th season. So we're here, of course, for the NBA playoff talk. And I know a lot of people just probably just turned off the podcast after hearing that. Host again, another show without football. Oh, I might have a little few tidbits here at the end about uh some football stuff. Not not a lot of stuff people want to talk about. But so the NBA playoffs playing games have begun this weekend. Uh, of course, now we know how bad the regular season is of the NBA. And by the way, uh, for those who keep on saying the NBA regular season was bad, did you know that viewership for the 25-26 NBA season was up by 12%? I know. Hard to believe, right? We gave you that stat a few weeks ago on the show where you turn into a national game and you barely saw all the superstars play because of uh load management, uh them not wanting to play, or they were actually hurt. But still, they had a 12% increase in viewership for the whole NBA season. Well, that's over now. Now the real NBA season has begun, and the real excitement has begun. And man, I gotta tell you, if you've been paying attention for these first four NBA play-in games, you would have seen some exciting games. Now, the only game that might not have been exciting was that Sixers uh opening game, the Sixers game against the Magic. Uh, it was close for a little bit, and then 76ers pulled away at the end. But the uh Hornets Heat game was exciting, went in overtime. The Trailblazers Suns game, the following game after that was exciting. Uh back and forth all game. And then, of course, Golden State coming back with a tremendous comeback in the second half, and Steph Curry went crazy in the second half, scoring 27 points, uh, hitting a bunch of threes, hitting a three, falling into the crowd. I mean, that was that was something else to see uh, you know, the way the Golden State played in that second half to come back and win. Well, Golden State plays the Suns tonight for the right to the eighth seed to get swept by the Oklahoma City. So as much as I like Golden State and want to see them win, uh, they get passed tonight. They're not doing much. Of course, the other game tonight is the Hornets and the Magic. Oh, that game is in Orlando. That, of course, is for the eighth seed in the East. And of course, whoever wins that game is getting uh swept by the Detroit Pistons. So, you know, for as much excitement it is to win the uh playing games, I don't know what the incentive is after that because you're not gonna get past uh the number one team when you make it past when you make it past that. Um so we'll go over each series here, what what the host thinks, who the host likes, and then we'll give you uh the uh play, and then we'll have our NBA series parley at the end of this. So we'll just start in the uh Eastern Conference. So, like I just talked about, uh Magic and the Hornets are gonna play uh tonight uh to see who wins. Uh Magic are getting three and a half points at home. I actually like the Magic in that game. I think the Hornets aren't very good. Uh they had to uh do some kind of uh dirty play uh to Bam a Bayo the other night by Lamello Bell. Uh I mean Lamelo Ball, excuse me, uh, to uh get him out of the game. And then that's how they ended up winning uh in overtime. I think the Magic uh prevailed tonight at home, and they will play the Pistons. And the Pistons are gonna win that series in four games. Uh, they are the number one seed in the uh in the Eastern Conference. Last year they uh lost a tough series uh to the Knicks, where they probably could have won. They uh learned from that. Uh Cade Cunningham uh coming off injury. He's well rested. Um, he's gonna be uh ready to go. And I think the Pistons uh will easily dispatch of whoever it is, Magic or Hornets. So Pistons would be uh my uh play. Pistons in four in that series. Now, the 76ers uh won their play-in game the other night against the Orlando Magic at home. They are now the seventh seed. They are taking on the Celtics, which is the second seed. And the Celtics, keep in mind, finished as the second seed, and they didn't have Jason Tatum for you know a good 80% of the season. Uh, he just came back recently within uh uh came back in March from his torn Achilles. Uh he's looked great. Uh the team has looked great. Jalen Brown uh had a little injury, he is back. Uh this Boston team, you know, which was uh looking to uh go to the finals again last year before Jason Tatum got hurt in the playoffs and towards Achilles. They're back. And his Sixer team, uh I don't know, are we ever gonna see Joel Ellen beat actually play uh more than 50 games in the season again? Uh he's had an academctomy, which is he's now gonna be out. Uh Maxie is their star player. And of course, Paul George is not the same Paul George as he was uh 10 years ago, and I don't see the 76ers winning at all at this series. They're plus 800 in this series. The Celtics are minus 1,400. Put the Pistons on the NBA Series parlay, put the Celtics on the NBA Series parlay. Uh, you're gonna have to wait, though, until tonight. This uh for that, whoever wins that game, Magic or Hornets, you're gonna have to wait for those odds to pop up for the Pistons. But click on the Pistons for that series. I'm saying Celtics. I like the Celtics in this series in five. I think the Sixers will steal one game at home. How about the whole arena chat? And we won Boston the other night. Careful what you wish for, Philadelphia fans. Uh the Hawks and the Knicks is the third series in the Eastern Conference. The Hawks are plus 220 in that series. The Knicks are minus 275. Now, a lot of worries amongst the Knicks fans and the New York media here. Uh the Knicks aren't looking as good defensively, of course. They let uh Tom Thinnable go in the offseason. They brought in Mike Brown, thinking that Mike Brown would have the team running a better offense, which they kind of do, but sometimes this offense still kind of disappears at times, and they don't nearly play as good as defense as they did under Tom Thidable. So uh while you know this Knicks team is the number third seed uh in this Eastern Conference, and uh, you know, they think that they're uh they have a shot of getting uh to the finals. They think they can beat uh Boston, they think they can beat uh the Pistons. I I don't I don't see the Knicks getting very far in the playoffs uh just because of Mike Brown, their coach. I said it was a bad hire in the offseason, but I do think they get by the Hawks. And how about the Hawks? They got rid of uh their player there, Trey Young. They got rid of him to Washington, and then All of a sudden they started winning. Remember, people said that Trey Young was a problem. Well, they this team starts winning. They have a more balanced team. They love to spread the ball around. They play good defense. They might have a small chance here of upsetting the Knicks. I would give the Hawks a good chance in this series. Matter of fact, I think they're going to give the Hawks all they can handle in this series. I think, like I said, I think there's a lot of pressure on the Knicks to win. I'm only going with the Knicks in this series because they get four games at Madison Square Garden. And when you play a playoff game at Madison Square Garden, it's a lot different than playing a regular season game. So give me the Knicks, minus 275. Put them on the NBA series parlay, and I'll take the Knicks in seven in this series. I think this is going to be a close, closer series than people think. The Hawks come into this series very, very hot playing good basketball at the end of the year. And the fourth series, I got Toronto and Cleveland playing. I got Toronto at plus 350. I got Cleveland at minus 450. Cleveland made that trade in the middle of the year. Got rid of Darius Garland, brought in James Harden. Pair him along with Donovan Mitchell. These two have gotten along very well. They've been playing good. Now remember, the only downfall with that is James Harden usually doesn't show up in the playoffs. Usually just kind of fades away. Just kind of doesn't show up. And, you know, Toronto, they got Brandon Ingram. They got RJ Barrett. So they got some players on Toronto. And I think they'll give uh Cleveland uh you know a hard time in a couple games, but I like Cleveland in six in this series. So add Cleveland to the NBA series parlay. So in the east, in the east, and I know all host just going with chalk here. Uh in the east, Pistons, Celtics, Knicks, and Cavaliers, all favorites in this series. I think they will all uh you know easily take care of business in the uh Eastern Conference. Like I said, the only team that might have some trouble is the Knicks, but they should win that series in seven games. That's why I think it's gonna happen in that series. Now, moving over to the West. Like I said, we have Warriors and Suns playing tonight. I think the Warriors will win, and I think the Warriors are gonna get crushed by the Thunder in the next series. And just because the Warriors have a veteran team, I'll give the Thunder a five uh games to take care of the Warriors. I think maybe the Warriors win one game in in uh Oakland when they go back to playing that series. But the Thunder, they got the best team, 64 regular season wins, they got the reigning MVP and SGA, they got all their young players, they're all all ready to go, all are healthy, and I think they'll just dismantle uh a veteran Warriors team. Now, if the Warriors had Jimmy Butler, I still wouldn't give them a chance. You know, Jimmy Butler, of course, got uh towards ACL during the season. Uh and the Warriors might not be in the AC situation if Jimmy Butler would have played a full season on that team. So, you know, Golden State, uh, you know, with their veterans and their uh older players, they might not be in this situation if a lot of those guys didn't get hurt during the year. But they're sitting in a bad spot, and the Thunder will take care of uh Golden State in time. Now, Trailblazers and the Spurs. The Trailsblazers won uh that play-in game the other night uh against Phoenix. Now they are the seventh seed, they are plus one thousand, and they go up against Wembenyama and the Spurs, who are minus two thousand. Now, Spurs are a very young team, they're the second seed. They can give Oklahoma a run for their money. They beat them three times during the regular season. If one team Oklahoma had trouble against in the regular season, it was San Antonio. Now the only thing here with San Antonio is they're a young team. Wembenyama is first playoffs. Now we'll see how he takes all that in. We'll see if he steps up another notch, which all-star, all-time great players do. Everybody's talking about Wembenyama and being that. We'll see if he can elevate himself. And I think they'll be able to take care of the Trailblazers. I think give me the Spurs in five. So give me the Spurs in this series in five. So so far, we've gone over six series. We got the Pistons, the Celtics, the Knicks, and the Cavaliers, Thunder, and Spurs all on a parley. We got two more series to go over. Now, the Rockets and the Lakers. Lakers are missing Luka Donich, missing Austin Reeves, and they're going to rely on 40-year-old Libron to lead this team. Lakers don't have stand a chance without those two players. Of course, they're going up against the Senguin guy of the Rockets. They're going up against Kevin Durant. The Rockets last year lost in the opening round to Golden State in seven games. They felt like they needed to make a move to get themselves better to make it to the next round. That's why they went out and traded for Kevin Durant. Yes, Kevin Durant is 36 years old, but he could still play and he could still uh get hot and light it up. And I think the Rockets being a younger team, uh being more aggressive offensively, being more aggressive defensively, I think they will take care of the Lakers. Give me the Rockets in five games. Also, last not least, I think the premier series of the first round. And that of course is the Minnesota Timberwolves against the Denver Nuggets. Minnesota is plus 265 to win this series. Denver is minus 340. Now the Denver Nuggets during the year. Just let me read you this stat, folks. They were number one offense in points per game, and they were number one in offensive efficiently. They got the Jokic, they got Jamal Murray, they got Aaron Gordon. This team is loaded offensively. Now, I give the Timberwolves a shot in this series because they got the Ant-Man, Anthony Edwards, one of the best players in the NBA. Some people call him a fraud, uh fake, fake all-star. I every time I watch this guy, this guy steps it up and plays great. Uh, remember last year in the playoffs? People didn't give them the chance against the Lakers. They beat the Lakers in five. So uh I don't know. I'd be careful with uh Anthony Edwards and the Minnesota Timberwolves. And uh, you know, they got Julius Randle. This this also they got the Breadman, DiVincenzo. So just be careful uh with this Minnesota team, but I think uh Jokic and the Nuggets will prevail. I think this will be the best series of the opening series. Give me the Nuggets in seven games. So there's your eight-game playoff series parlay, Pistons, Celtics, Knicks, Cavaliers, Thunder, Spurs, Nuggets, and Rockets, with the Spurs uh being at minus 2,000. That's gonna hurt the overall, overall parlay of it, and I'm sure the Thunder will be a big favorite when the odds come out after uh we see who wins between the Warriors and the Suns. But that is your eighth-game NBA playoff parlay. I I want to say put the host uh guarantee on it, but uh uh oh wait, come on, come on why is that funny? Okay, all right, yeah. Come on, it ain't that funny. All right, I put I want to put the host guarantee on there, but I'm not. But you know, play play as you want. If you feel you don't think all eight favorites are gonna win, then you know, pick a couple underdogs. You know, the favorites might not all win in these series, but I think they they're gonna like the only the only close series Timberwolves Nuggets Raptors Cavaliers. That's the only two series you're gonna have to worry about. Maybe the Knicks Hawks maybe but the only two series you might have to stress and worry about are the Timberwolves and Nuggets Raptors and Cavaliers. Other than that, you're gonna win an 8k Moneyline parlay come this NBA season. Courtesy of the host. The only downfall about the NBA playoffs now, yo, the playing games have been already been excited. They're more exciting than any regular season games we saw this year. If you did watch the NBA regular season. The only downfall about the NBA playoffs is that maybe 25% of games are blowouts because of the way these teams shoot the three-pointer. Some teams start shooting the three-pointer, they get red hot. Next thing you know, they're up 20 points, and the other team starts taking threes to catch up and they just can't make them, and then they're down by 30, and then the game's over. So a lot of times that happens recently in the last few years in the NBA playoffs. But most of the time, these games are great, they're exciting. All the stars are playing. Everybody you want is out there playing hard. It's the only time that you can sit there and go, wow, this is some exciting stuff. And it all kicks off tomorrow with four games on Saturday and four games on Sunday. Uh, a couple of uh baseball things happened this past week that uh I'd like to share with you before we close off this show. If anybody saw the Angels Yankees series this week, you saw in that series that Mike Trout hit five home runs in the series and Aaron Judge hit four home runs in the series. It's the second series ever where multiple players with multiple MVPs from adjoining teams homered three or more times. The only other series to do that was the 1962 series between the New York Yankees and the Kansas City A's, where Mickey Mannell had five home runs and Roger Maris had four home runs. That's the only time that a series has produced uh a team with multiple uh MVPs. They had that many home runs. And the first were their opponents, of course, because Roger Maris and Mickey Mann were both teammates on the New York Yankees. And another baseball stat for you this week Mason Miller of the San Diego Padres. Listen to this strikeout percentage he has had over the last 135 batters he's faced. He struck out 20 of the last 23, 30 of the last 38, 40 of the last 55, 50 of the last 70, 60 of the last 89, 70 of the last 109, and 80 of the last 135 batters, Mason Miller has faced, he's struck out. No other Major League Baseball pitcher in the last 50 years has matched any of those stretches at any point of their career. So Mason Miller bringing the heat, striking out guys. Man, 80 of the last 135 guys, this guy has struck out. Sounds like the host's career uh wiffle ball stats striking out guys there. All right. That's all I got for you. I just wanted to come on and give my NBA series parlay. Of course, I had a few master tidbits in the beginning because of some emailers. But uh, I'll be back. I'll be back with an update on the NBA playoffs uh this weekend. Uh, everybody, I know it's Friday. Have a great weekend. And as you always, you know where to get the show by now. That's the host of SteelDF72, Spotify, HiHeart Radio, Google Podcasts, Podcast Act, and of course, Amazon Music. And as always, it's nice to be important, but more important, to be nice. Well, you know I gotta play this. Uh, my band, of course, everybody knows, hired me. And this past week, they were finally elected to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. They will be inducted into the Hall of Fame in November of 2026. So, well deserved. My favorite band, Iron Maid, get into the rock and roll hall of fame. This is one of their classic, classic Iron Maid songs.