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REAL TALK! with Doc and Marlon
NBA All-Star Game Critique, LeBron's Absence, March Madness Picks & NFL Draft Insights
What happened to the NBA All-Star Game's magic? We're not just reminiscing—we're sounding the alarm on what was once a fiercely competitive showcase of basketball's elite. With Doc, we dissect the lackluster new format and question the commitment of today's stars, pointing a finger at LeBron James' last-minute absence. It’s time to consider borrowing a page from other sports like the NFL, which has successfully revamped its all-star events. Together, we brainstorm ways to bring back the excitement and prestige that icons like Kobe, Jordan, and Magic once embodied, hoping to reignite the fire that made us all look forward to the All-Star weekend.
Switching gears, we embrace a spirited debate on basketball legends, from Magic and MJ to modern-day marvels like Steph Curry. Who truly deserves the title of the greatest player ever? As we set our sights on college basketball, the conversation heats up with our predictions for March Madness. Auburn emerges as our pick to watch, but don’t sleep on powerhouses like Duke or Houston. We then pivot to the NFL, where the Bengals’ strategic maneuvers to retain key players take center stage. We also assess the upcoming draft, spotlighting Travis Hunter's potential and Daniel Jeremiah's intriguing predictions. This episode is packed with passionate analysis and bold predictions—guaranteed to spark discussions among sports enthusiasts.
And welcome everybody to another episode of Real Talk. Doc, you doing all right today.
Speaker 2:Yes, sir, I'm doing fine brother.
Speaker 1:We're blessed. I love it. I love it, yeah, and we want to thank all the new listeners. Doc, doc, give them the insight on where we have listeners, and we have a ton of listeners in Europe and even Australia, africa. We have a ton of new listeners. So we definitely want to thank all the new listeners and even some of the listeners that have been with us early on. So we thank all of you guys.
Speaker 2:Oh, absolutely, we really appreciate the support. Man, Without you all listening man we're nobody. So thank you for listening to Real Talk with me and my man Marlon in San Diego. Yeah, Absolutely.
Speaker 1:All right, so we're just going to hop right into it. We've got a quick episode for you guys. Not a lot's going on, obviously. The football's done, super Bowl's passed and we are officially in basketball season. Mlb is going to be starting pretty soon, in about a month, month and a half, so we will have some episodes for you on that. But as far as with basketball, all-star break was over the weekend and we have a new format. So, doc, I'm going to turn it over to you with a little get it off your chest, start off this show. So, doc, get it off your chest.
Speaker 2:It's an absolute disgrace what transpired two days ago, man, on Sunday for the NBA All-Star Game. This is the All-Star Game. I could do without all the prelims and the rappers doing their thing during the game. That's messed up. I'm old school brother, you know, and I don't know where all this went wrong. You know Draymond Green's taking heat for what he just, but he's not wrong.
Speaker 2:This is basketball, you know, and you got some guys that don't even deserve to be on an all-star game in and of itself, like Dalton, connect, the Futures and all that. This is an all-star game, man. This is Kareem. This is Magic Bird, jordan, kobe LeBron when he was young, you know, and it's one of those things where I'm not old enough to remember Wilt, but it's gotten to the point where they might as well do away with the contest, man, because right now, as we speak, silver has a problem on his hands relative to that, and Green said it his day.
Speaker 2:He criticized the game because they keep coming up with these outlandish ideas, man, and it's one of those things where it's worse than any of the four major North American sports. Hockey is up their tick on the all-star game. They're the Canada of four countries and all that, but baseball they have some issues with the home run hitting contest and all that. And Pro Bowl in the NFL is an absolute joke. But the NBA this is pro basketball. This is the worst out of all of them, man, and I just hate to see it. And the thing that LeBron pulled the other day, waiting about 30 minutes before tip-off to say he's not playing you knew he had an injury before that. He was voted in. Some people say he's the GOAT. They just wanted to see him do a layup or two and then get out of there and he said he's not playing, man, and right before the tip off and it's.
Speaker 1:The whole weekend was whack relative to basketball, you know yeah somebody, yeah, go ahead yeah, and and with the lebron thing, I don't know if he didn't want to get scratched from the game or just to take away from his all-star stature, however many all-stars he has, but it's like, come on, man, there could have been somebody that would have actually played. Because, if you remember, last year, lebron maybe played, I don't know, maybe five, ten minutes and that was it. So if there's other players out there that at least could have been out there and could have played. But to your point, as far as with the whole new, the system, the setup, I mean it was just, you know, when you think of Kobe, when you think of Jordan, those guys, kevin Garnett, those guys wanted to be out there, they wanted to play and they wanted to win. And just seeing what was out there, in all these different teams, you have the rising stars that are playing out there. It's just, I understand, but it puts the commissioner, it puts the league in a tough spot, because it's, what are we going to do to change it? You obviously knew you had to change something.
Speaker 1:Look at what the NFL did with the Pro Bowl. They obviously changed it to flag football. They had all these different rules and all these different things to at least make it more enticing, to get people intrigued to watch the game. So it's at the end of the day they did this to themselves. They lollygagged, they didn't play defense, they walked around, they let people drive by and it sucks, man.
Speaker 1:And of course the old days are gone. You know you're not going to have the old days of the Pro Bowl where you got Ray Lewis going there and smacking somebody, sean Taylor running through God rest his soul smacking somebody down the sideline in the Pro Bowl, or Kobe guarding somebody, jordan guarding somebody, trying not to get people to score. It's unfortunate, but the old days are gone. And now here we are with this new system and they had to figure something out, and obviously this is not the answer. But what are they going to do at this point? They had to figure something out and obviously this is not the answer. But what are they going to do at this point? They had to figure something out.
Speaker 2:I think they should go back to the old school guys that are still leaving, like Kareem big cap and Oscar Robinson, dr J, dominique Wilkins, joy and all, and just have a breakfast or luncheon, uh, the Saturday night or evening, or even even dinner, just to talk about some of these issues, about putting forth effort and playing hard. You shouldn't have to force these guys to have pride in their respective conferences, you know, and take it from there. Maybe the top five teams in the East or the West can come together and say, okay, whoever wins this game gets home court advantage in the finals, but having the old guard, the Oscars and all that and greens, and just have them talk to these young fellas. They probably know who Dr J was. He's the icon of some of these young cats, man, and they take it for granted, just playing hard.
Speaker 2:And then we're living in an age where you know, it's one of those things where we have load management and you're not going to play back to back. And it's the whole NBA. And I love basketball, I love the game, but some people are turned off by this. But the all-star game on two days ago, on Sunday, was the coup de grace, you know, and you and I can go to Venice Beach and see guys play harder than they did with these multi-million dollar athletes. On a Sunday, this is the NBA All-Star game and I want to harp on that because right now you know these guys act like they don't want to play.
Speaker 1:You know, absolutely Forget about yeah, go ahead, that's all I got. 100% agree with you. And you know, just talking about some of the great athletes, we're talking about all-stars. So I'm gonna go ahead and throw a question your way. So if you had to put together your starting five of all time, obviously we know you can go way back into the the 60s, the 70s and all that but uh, here we are and you know 2025. But if you had to put your all-time starting five together for the NBA, who would you have?
Speaker 2:I would have Magic at the point, 6'9 point guard. I have Jordan as a two guard, 6'6", scoring up to two. My big man would be Kareem, you know, big cap. He barely edges out, wilt, you know, but I got to go there, put Kareem in there, big cap. My three would be Larry Bird, you know.
Speaker 2:Okay, and then my four guy would be Carl Malone. That's my starting five. You say, well, where's LeBron? You know, lebron, he's basically, you know he's an all-time leading great and all that. But you can't do magic and you can't overtake magic or Jordan. You're definitely not overtaking. But people forget how good Bird was Three straight MVPs, won three times, went for his back. It had been up there. He didn't result for the three. You know he couldn't jump, but he could shoot the lights out and hustle and think the game. And I love LeBron, but no. And then my four guy, it's Karl Malone. I think he's better than Barkley, I think he's better than Duncan.
Speaker 2:That's up to the bait, Because Duncan played the five too. You already know I got Kareem at the five, but Duncan played the five too. You already know a guy like Kareem at the five. But Karl Malone was great. He was the all-time leading scorer, or second all-time leading scorer to Big Cap, for a decade at least.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2:And 6'9", 256, you know, can shoot the J can run the floor at that height and weight dominant. And I love Barkley but yeah, and Wilt is my guy but he's got to go with Kareem man Big cap.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and I think, as you said with Wilt, that was a name Tim Duncan. He's obviously up there in that conversation. I know he's one of my favorites. He wouldn't make anybody's top five or even second team, but Kevin Garnett, just he's gonna give you 120 every time, so that's just an honorable mention.
Speaker 1:Another honorable mention uh, you know, if you don't pick jordan, you obviously will pick kobe. Uh, honorable mention would be duane wade. In that one, they are arguably the top three shooting guard of all time. Um, who else we have? Of course, you mentioned lebron. If you don't pick, uh, larry, uh, lebron obviously would have to be there. But you know LeBron's obviously interchangeable. He could put him maybe in one through four. But you know, if you could do that, you're not picking um, you know, in that position, in that spot, you're not picking LeBron over Karl Malone or somebody like that, who actually is one of the greatest fours of all time. So, no, I love it. I love it. This is good, and we can obviously go back and forth through this all day. There's a lot of great names that we can kind of interplug. I mean Steph Curry, steph Curry, magic Johnson, that's really the two that you would pick with point guard. I don't know if you can think off the top of your head who else you would put in that spot for all-time point guards.
Speaker 2:Oh, yeah, yeah, there's a lot of them. Man, ai would be the third-team guy. You could put at the point Jason Kidd. Well, ai was really a point on that particular team. He's really a two-cookie score, but Jason Kidd's up there. Then you could put John Stockton. But the Wilt thing with Kareem, you can go either way with that. You know Wilt's record still stands with 100 points, an average of 50 and 26. But Kareem is Kareem, you know. And Big Cap was an all-time league scorer, six-time MVP and six-time champion. He won one with Milwaukee. And don't forget about some of the old cats, like Jerry West, the 43-point shot, oscar Robinson, as I referenced. But you know this is fun. So that's my star of the five. Right there, brother, I'll take that all.
Speaker 1:I can't believe I forgot Shaq. Shaq's another one that's got to be up there, so some would have him in there, first team, second team or whatever you have. Okay, all right, so we're going to go ahead and get into a little bit of NCAA and then we'll close everything out with a little NFL talk. So I know you have a little bit to say about Auburn. How are you feeling about Auburn leading into the March Madness era? What are your thoughts on Auburn?
Speaker 2:Auburn's one of those teams, brother, where they're well coached and I don't see them stumbling at all in the NCAA tournament. They have depth, they have size. You know I like their superstar. You know if he played on one leg it'd still be Alabama on the road, and Alabama's a great team. You know Seeing them perform like that and the chemistry that they have with some of the other cats coming off the bench, they're starting fibers off the champ.
Speaker 2:The only team that might challenge Auburn is Duke, and Duke has a scoop of flag and they've got conniption and some of the other players the Nigerian boy in the middle. But I just think Auburn's the team to beat. I love Auburn and Bruce Pearl has done a tremendous job. It's hard to win at Alabama in a state rivalry number one versus two on the road and to get them at home in Auburn in a couple of weeks. But Auburn is the team to beat. They're an awesome team and they played. I think it's like seven or eight power five or top 25 programs they call it something else but they beat them all you know. So yeah, auburn is great yeah.
Speaker 1:Auburn, florida, duke Bama and Houston hit the top five. So if you guys did not listen to our episode last week with Chad in California, go ahead and listen to that. We had some great conversations. And also, too, mike and the OC he was the episode before that. So these are our out of all the episodes we had. We started getting some guests on. So if you did not listen to the last two episodes, please go listen to those. We'll have more guests for you. I have a list of guys we're working on, so we'll definitely get some more guests for you. I have a lot of. I have a list of guys we're working on. So, uh, we'll definitely get some more uh guests for you guys as we get ready to get into this spring season. So, um, so yes, all right, doc. So on the nfl we we hear some news about the bangles. What do you think they're going to do with jamar chase and t higgins?
Speaker 2:I think they're going to sign Tee Higgins and Jamal Chase and they're going to sit down and do some things with the salary cap relative to Burrow and give them a signing bonus to release some of the cap money to help out signing those two players. And Burrow, to his credit, is egging management on to do that. Historically they're a cheap organization Mike Brown and the family up there and Bengals but they know the only way to win is to have both of them. And don't forget Trey Hennison, the edge rusher who led the league in sacks was 17 and a half. He was the only one on defense that performed worth a dollar, so they've got to sign him too. But the two superstars Higgins and Chase have to get done, and I'm sure the quarterback Burrow is going to do what he needs to do to change some money around and make it to a signing bonus or do whatever. Give some money back to keep that thing together, man, you know.
Speaker 1:Absolutely.
Speaker 2:Because they're dangerous. No running game, to speak of Mixon's in Houston, you know. So they have to get this T Higgins thing and Jamar Chase thing done. You know you can't break that up. That's like Jerry Rice and John Taylor.
Speaker 1:Absolutely, absolutely. So, looking at what some of these players, what some of these teams could draft, some of these players Now, I didn't get your take on this and we haven't talked about this, I don't think, in the past couple weeks, but when you look at a guy like travis hunter, in your opinion should he have went into the, the, uh, the combine as a corner or a wide receiver.
Speaker 2:He's going in as a corner, but I think the receiver is the best thing, for his technique as a corner somewhat left to be desired, but they needed him on offense at colorado and he produced. He can work on his route, running. You know he has the wheels and the speed to go deep, to go around, but I think as a receiver man he's pretty much unguardable. I think he's the best athlete in the draft by far. But I don't think it's feasible or plausible, if you will in NFL with 17 weeks, to say he's going to do both, because now you're talking about injuries and all that. You want to see the exceptional talent stay healthy. But I think receiver might be his deal.
Speaker 2:We really didn't watch him play defense that much, but Colorado needed him to score and play offense. But he has some defensive skills, Coach, by the best corner in my opinion. In my opinion it's Deion. So you might have Deion, the skills to play on that level, but receiver, in my mind, to answer your question, is his best option. He has ball skills that you can't teach. You can't teach his ball skills.
Speaker 2:He's always catching things you know, Go ahead.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and looking at Daniel Jeremiah's most recent draft, he has Travis Hunter going to New York with third pick and then Amarion Hampton going to my Chargers and then Travion Henderson from Ohio State going to the Vikings. So your thoughts on this most recent draft? That's out.
Speaker 2:Well, I got Travis Hunter going to the Browns, you know, at two, and it's one of those things where the charges I got you taking Emeka Abuka, the receiver, out of Ohio State and I think it's going to have a tremendous impact, with Ladd McConkie on the other side, and you just need a guy that can catch the rock man. There's no way around it. You're tired of the guy from TCU from two years ago. If you want to reach, if you had to take another position for the Chargers, I'd take Walter Nolan, the defensive tackle, out of Ole Miss to help out Bosa and Mack. The guy's a massive 6'5", 290-pound behemoth. Walter Nolan was a former five-star, but I'm sticking with receivers for you and I forget the other team that you mentioned. What was the other team?
Speaker 1:The Vikings.
Speaker 2:Vikings. Okay, I got them taking Derek Harmon, the defensive tackle out of Oregon, you know, because they need help on that interior push, you know, and take it from there you can make an argument for Kenneth Grant, another massive, wide body at 350 from Michigan. But Derek Harmon from Oregon, this guy has all the moves you can put him at the five technique, the three technique and all that meaning edge rusher or defensive. Kenneth Grant is massive, you can't put them on the outside. So I got the vikings going there. I can't wait for the draft and the doc mock and all that that was just a tease, if you will.
Speaker 1:You know, yeah, and as we get closer, obviously we have, you know, spring training coming and and the, you know, opening day week, all that coming to as well. But as we look at this draft, we're going to have a lot of guests set up for you guys. So when you look at, when you think of just the mad dog sports radio callers in general, we're going to kind of take it by the draft. So when you look at the giants, we're going to have some of your very well known Giants fans on the call, patriots as well, raiders, jets, bears, and then, you know, 49ers, just to name a few. We're going to have a lot of callers on this show that we will get their take on, who they want, what they want their teams to do and all that stuff. So this is only the beginning. So we definitely have a lot of stuff planned for you guys coming forward and of course, like Doc said, with the Doc Mock and everything too. But yeah, doc, you got anything else for us before we get out of here.
Speaker 2:Yeah, man. Just, you know the NBA is going into their second half. I want to give them my top five all-time teams in NBA history. You know you got to start with the 86 Celtics with Burr Parrish and McHale and Bill Walton. You know Dennis Johnson, that's one, I'm just doing five. Number two would be the Lakers with Magic Kareem Worthy. You know they had some supporting players Michael Cooper, mike McGee, the 87 makers. So those are my top two Three. I got to put the 98 Bulls in there. You know you got to do that, and 72 and whatever. You got to put Jordan in there.
Speaker 2:And then after that, man, you can put some of the greatest teams for the Celtics in the 60s, with Russell and Sam Jones and Casey Jones, number four. And then the Shaq Lakers. You know Shaq and Kobe. I think the 0-2 was the one, they went 15-1 in the postseason. Actually you can put them four. And then the Celtics and one of the Celtics teams in the 60s maybe 65, at number five, but that Kobe Shaq team, the second one, when they beat Iverson, that was lit man, rick Fox and all those cats, robert Horry, and they came back and got a three-peat. So those are my top five NBA champions ever man, but the 86 Celtics, they're staying hungry. You look at the depth that they had, man, but the 86 Celtics, they're staying hungry. If you look at the depth that they had, man, it's domination, you know. And the 87 Lakers are my top two. So yeah, that's it, brother.
Speaker 2:We can debate that on a future date yeah, absolutely yeah, we have a lot of.
Speaker 1:I mean now, when you said the 98 Bulls, do you mean the 95, 96 Bulls, or Do you mean the 95-96 Bulls, or or do?
Speaker 2:you mean which one? I'm trying to wonder with Rodman, when they went 72 and whatever. I'm getting the years mixed up, yeah.
Speaker 1:I believe that was a 95-96 in my, to my understanding.
Speaker 2:But yeah, yeah, yeah 72 wins, yeah, 95-96.
Speaker 1:Okay, yeah, that's the one. Okay.
Speaker 2:That's the one. Okay, 72 wins. Yeah, 95-96. Okay, yeah, that's the one, okay.
Speaker 1:That's the one. Okay, yeah, yeah, and then.
Speaker 2:Because in 98, they beat Utah and Jordan pushed off.
Speaker 1:Yes, he did Yep, yep, but yeah, that 95-96 team.
Speaker 2:Yeah, that was awesome. You could say, well, where's the Golden State team that went 72 and whatever they lost to Cleveland in that year? That was the one year LeBron beat Kyrie Irving and had the shot. So one of those Golden State teams, the greatest team they had, didn't win at all, but you got to put them up there in the top ten. They got four of them, but I think one of those teams would get six, seven or whatever. So, yeah, you're right, 95, 96 Bulls. That's pretty much it, brother. Yeah, absolutely. I love this.
Speaker 1:All right. So yeah, we'll go ahead and have another guest on for you guys next week. We'll probably I don't know what we'll do. I don't know if it'll be draft-focused or if we may try to lean into baseball with baseball around the corner or NBA, but we'll figure it out. But we appreciate everybody for joining Doc any last words.
Speaker 2:No, I thank God and I appreciate everybody listening and you being a host doing a great job. I just answer the questions and do the best of my knowledge. This is fun, man, but the audience is what we attune to. You guys are a complete blessing for me and Marlon. So thank you for listening and tuning in.
Speaker 1:Absolutely All right. We'll catch you guys next week. Peace, Peace.