The Knicks Proved Us Right! SkapAttack Interview On Finals, Brunson & Wembys Impact on Basketball (Part1)

Transcript

Quick Intro And Big Prediction

SPEAKER_01 0:00

All right, guys, thank you so much and welcome. This is Stefan Piscano with the Stefan Piscano podcast. And I had the great honor and privilege to get to sit down once again with my main guy, Jay Scapanac, of the YouTube channel Scap Attack on Friday of this week. And to be honest, I gave him a pretty horrible intro. We were doing it live. So in order to do him justice, I just had to get on here and record a quick one. And I have the added benefit now of having just watched the Knicks win the NBA championship in five games, which I'm gonna go ahead and take credit. You'll see on this podcast episode, we predicted not only that they would win, but they would do it in game five, which was a somewhat hot take at the time. Jay Scapinak is the content creator and founder of the YouTube channel Scap Attack. At the time we recorded this interview, has right under 100,000 subscribers, and we really hope that he gets there soon. He is also a regular contributor on Jason Whitlock's show Fearless, and he has a lot of exciting new content coming up, both with his channel and other channels that he's gonna be starting in the near future over the next few months, which we talked about all that as well. So had to get this one up quick because this was really focused on Victor Wimbinyama, the NBA finals. Of course, we managed to mix in a little bit of Kobe Bryant and sadly LeBron James as well. You know, we had to do it. Please make sure you're subscribed because I'm gonna be airing the full interview later this week, and we're gonna have some other pieces from this interview with Jay talking about what it takes to build a successful YouTube channel, and again, kind of teasing some of the exciting things that he's got coming up in the very, very near future for all of us sports fans here. So, without further ado, Jay, thank you again so very much for doing this and for joining me today.

SPEAKER_00 1:34

My pleasure. Always, always fun to get on and talk with you. Thank you.

Dream Finals Matchup And Brackets

SPEAKER_01 1:38

Got a pretty incredible NBA Finals series going on here. My first question to you is when the playoffs started, I know you're become a pretty diehard Jokic guy, obviously. So you have to be a Nuggets fan by result. But if I would have asked you to pick the best possible finals matchup, this would have been pretty high on the list, I would think, right?

SPEAKER_00 1:57

So my the one I was rooting for, Stefan, uh yes, I am unfortunately a Nuggets fan. I say unfortunately because I know they stink and they had no chance to get there. I thought honestly, if they could avoid the Timberwolves, they could have beaten the Spurs, and then I thought they would have lost to the Thunder in the in the West Finals. And then I, you know, I honestly I thought it was gonna be when the playoffs started way back when I thought it was gonna be Thunder and Celtics. Of course, the Celtics absolutely choked their asses off in the first round, blew a 3-1 lead to the to the Philadelphia 76ers of all of all teams. But then, look, if you asked me though, what my favorite finals or what I would like to see, even though I thought there was no chance, I would have told you Nick's nuggets. So I I actually did get half of the equation there of what I would have really liked to see.

Why Wembanyama Feels Like A Throwback

SPEAKER_01 2:48

Is Wimby, where does he rank for you these days on your favorite current player list?

SPEAKER_00 2:52

I really I don't like many players in the NBA today. I I uh Jokic and Giannis have been two guys, and the reason I I've liked and respected them so much is because they've proven they could win in a small market with very middling to subpar teams around them, and they've just stayed there despite the fact that their organization has done very little to support their abilities to win. They don't demand trades, they don't talk shit on their teammates, they don't run around and join other people. Now, Giannis looks like finally, after like 13 years, he's on his way out. And I would endorse that that move at this point, as long as he doesn't jump to the thunder or something. I I've never disliked players that have proven that they just simply aren't in a winning atmosphere with their organization leaving, like Kevin Garnett. Like he gave everything he he could, he did everything he could to elevate that organization. They weren't going along with him for the ride. So I was totally okay with him leaving. Didn't love the fact that he went and joined the Paul Pierce and Ray Allen, but they were older players, not like first team all NBA caliber players at the time, but still we could make an argument that's the first super team, really.

SPEAKER_01 4:00

That person, you know.

SPEAKER_00 4:02

You could, except for the fact, again, that none of them were all NBA the year before the join up, except for KG. They were all still all-star caliber, but not like best in the league, I don't think anymore, or like top five even at the time. But I still reject the move to join two other superstars. If Giannis, though, just wants to go to some like Miami, like Miami, if he goes to Miami, which is the the team I'm hearing, like they're not a super team, obviously. They're they're not even a top five team, probably in the East. But but if he says, look, I trust that organization, that coach, to do what they need to help me get to a better place where I can compete, I'm all for that. But because Giannis and Jokic are just so classy and they and they hadn't done the jump, that's why I really like them. And really, that's it, quite frankly, in in today's NBA, until Wembin Yama came along. Because while he hasn't been in the league long enough to prove that he's gonna, you know, be a classy guy like those two and not jump around the league, I don't think he will. But he has shown enough in this early stage of his career that he does have like an old school kind of mentality and mindset about the game and an approach to it. Like he he is an elite two-way player, and honestly, his defense right now is substantially above his offense. So, like, he's only gonna get much, much better. And he's still seven, he still averages 25 and 11 in the regular season in like 30 minutes a game. Right.

SPEAKER_01 5:27

I mean his per 36 minutes, it's like 30, 13. It's it's insane. I'm excited that as lifelong Kobe guys and Jokic guy for you, we spend our entire lives going back to teenage years defending players that the media and everybody around us hated for the most part. We might actually get to love a player that the media is backing. It's refreshing.

SPEAKER_00 5:53

It is like to finally have a golden, a golden player that you can get behind and support because to me, look, I like mostly everything I've seen of him to this point. Like he's struggling in these finals. There's been some issues with him in these finals, but I mean, he's 22 years old, he's he's in his third NBA season. And I mean, I just to see a guy that is he's all NBA, he's defensive player of the year caliber and MVP caliber. I didn't think we would see a guy in the modern era be that again. Like a guy that is a true two-way Daunt, like because Kobe Bryant and like Tim Duncan and Kevin Garner, like those guys are first team all NBA, first team all NBA defense every year, basically for like 10 plus years. Right? I never thought we would get to an era or a stage because of such there's such a focus on just offense and stuff like that these days, that I never thought we would get to a point where we would see uh like a specimen like him again, and and here he is, and he genuinely hates losing. Like he looks like a true competitor that that is his number one singular focus and driving point, is just winning. So, again, he's got he is a throwback guy. The

Losing, Competitiveness, And Kobe’s Standard

SPEAKER_00 7:04

only thing that isn't old school about him is his physique. The guy looks like a walking skeleton figure, so he's got a strap on a little bit of muscle moving forward.

SPEAKER_01 7:13

It was evident to me, honestly, in the all-star game, was when at first when I was like, oh man, like wow, this guy's actually pissed that they lost. It used to be our generation and the Kobe's, and like you said, the Garn man, Garnett, Duncan, obviously Jordan and everyone before, you didn't have to force people to care. You didn't have to tell people to care. But now, unfortunately, because of the LeBron James generation and the staff and all this, you do. You can just tell how pissed he gets when he loses at anything.

SPEAKER_00 7:40

And it's you know, Kobe, I remember telling him telling the story back whenever they were asking him about his defense in some interview. And he said, like the first time he really decided he needed to become an elite defender was he was, I think he was playing Tim Thomas, who was, if you remember, he played, he was a decent NBA player, Tim Thomas, journeyman, like kind of played with the Knicks, Sixers, yeah. Yeah, yeah, yep. And he was actually, I think he was the number one prospect in Kobe's recruiting class. And Kobe came up against him in ABCD camps, like when they were in high school, and they would just go back and forth scoring on each other basically at will. And Thomas said to him, like, yeah, you I can't stop you, but you can't stop me either. So Kobe's like, you know what, you're right. I'm gonna change that. And then, you know, he said from that moment forth, he really put as much of a focus on the defensive side of things as he did on the offensive side.

SPEAKER_01 8:29

Well, and I think it's partially too right, because since Jordan set the template for everybody in the 80s and the 90s, the defense mattered. I feel like Kobe's generation followed that and took it to heart. LeBron, or Lasisi as I call him, LeBum as you call him, and a bunch of other things we both call him in private. He set the uh the tone for this generation to where it's like, eh, it doesn't matter. Don't worry about it. And so as his generation phases out and begins to retire, because of Wimby, I have hope for the next 15 years.

SPEAKER_00 9:03

I agree. Look at all the teams in the playoffs that it had some some sort of success. Like the Thunder on the West, the Thunder, obviously the Spurs and the Timberwolves. Like those are all defensively oriented teams. Like, even if they like the Timberwolves kind of took time off in the play in the regular season from defense, but they emerged back again as an elite defensive team once the playoffs began. And then the Knicks, like everybody talks about like the Knicks in general, their offense, how much of a role they've been on in these playoffs. But I mean, really, look at their defense. Like, they were okay in the regular season. They were upper echelon. I think they were the eighth net rated defense in the regular season. They gave up, I think, 112 or 113 points per 100 possessions. In these playoffs, they're giving up like 101 per 100 possessions. They're the number one net rated defense. So, like a 12, 11, 12-point cut per 100 possessions from regular season to playoffs, like that's why they're here because of the way they defend right now.

SPEAKER_01 9:58

It shows you, too, that they all of the teams could do this anytime they want. The fact that they do it in the playoffs, and that makes it all the more depressing why they don't do it in the regular season. But anyway, well, let me ask you this. I mean,

Brunson Praise And The Kobe Comparisons

SPEAKER_01 10:09

because to your point, and I said all those nice things about Wimby, I'm officially rooting for the Knicks, but Brunson, and I'm curious to get your official take on this because you did a video to where you were talking about the Mama mentality and his connection to Kobe, which was a really interesting video. I didn't know any of those stories. Then I've heard you say a lot of kind of negative stuff about him too, since then. So, what's your position on Brunson?

SPEAKER_00 10:30

So I dislike LeBron, but I also it's not it's so most of the time though, Steven, it's weird. Like, I don't necessarily like or dislike. There are a few players that I actively dislike, such as LeBron. So and I also think he's just monstrously overrated as well. So that works out for me that I get to attack him for being overrated.

SPEAKER_01 10:59

But I'm nice that your argument is factual, yes, sir. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 11:03

Right, right. But in terms of mostly other players, like I don't necessarily like or dislike. It's just I love I have liked Brunson and admired him for years because he was kind of an unheralded guy that came into the NBA. He was an elite college player that everybody basically wrote off at that level. And, you know, he went to Dallas, got kind of hidden on that team for I think four years beside Luka Doncic. And then he went to New York and became kind of a superstar. So I've been an admirer of him for several years, and I've been rooting for him throughout last playoffs and these playoffs. But now I'm starting to hear the whole, it all started, Stefan, because I am on Jason Whitlock's show, Fearless, mostly every day, especially if there's basketball news percolating around. And before game one of the NBA Finals started, he had me on and we were setting kind of the series up. And he said, We've got Brunson versus Wemby. I'm going for Brunson here. Uh, you know, he's an American player, you know, he's that gritty old school player versus this punk young foreigner. And I said, Jason, let's pump the brace here. You're putting Brunson on Wembin Yama's level. Like I love Brunson, but he's not a Wembinyama caliber player.

SPEAKER_01 12:12

He's a borderline top 15 to top 20 guy.

SPEAKER_00 12:15

Yeah, you can even argue as high as top 10, like 9, 10, like on the fringe end of the top 10. You can argue it. But somewhere between, yeah, like 10 to 20. And I said, Jason, the reason Brunson isn't the reason they're here. He may be the leader of the head of the snake. But really, if you look, if you dig into the advanced analytics and metrics of it all, there is nothing, no, no, not one singular metric you can point to that says that Brunson is even better than OG or Cat. Like OG and Anobi and Carl Anthony Towns are have been from the beginning of the playoffs till now the two best and the two most important players on the Knicks team. Now, Brunson gets all the credit and stuff because he hits those final shots, but I take exception with while I compare him to Kobe's and the mentality, Kobe did a hell of a lot more. Like Brunson just has to basically hit those shots at the end of the games. Kobe had to get them to the end of the games and then make the shots.

SPEAKER_01 13:12

It's really inferior, it really pisses me off, Scaff, that they do this. And this is why I harp so much about the media aspect of it. And I know we agree about this, but I think maybe I'm even more the media specifically obsessed with it than you. Maybe not. I don't know. But it just we can't, it's almost like we can't root for anybody because the second we start to like somebody, they take it two steps too far or 15 steps too far, and they start comparing him to Kobe because it's this continuous attack against him. Why they hate him so much, I really it's hard for me to fathom, other than it's just they have to, because if you acknowledged he was better than LeBron in his own era, then all the GOAT stuff goes away. But yeah, I mean it it is all that aside, though, it is fun watching him come up to court and this little guy, you can see it on his face how intense he is and how much he cares. So definitely.

SPEAKER_00 14:02

And he fits, I think, his like mentality or whatever, uh, his approach, it fits New York perfectly. I feel like he's a perfect New York athlete. And then they've they've built the perfect team around him. I mean, honestly, I all those guys just fit and play their roles so specifically and perfectly. It it

Knicks As A Team Of Destiny

SPEAKER_00 14:21

has been a magical run. I talk about it, you know, on the live streams, but that I have never seen a team be a team of destiny in the NBA. I say I it happens a lot in hockey, baseball, football because of the setup of the tournament. And well, football is a one-game elimination, so it's easy to just get hot at the end sometimes, and then you beat teams that are way better than you all year long. In hockey, you know, you get hot goaltending going on. In baseball, your bats could just come alive at the end, or you're pitching, your bullpen is just out of their minds. So oftentimes we see every three or four years, I feel like we're seeing a team that just gets hot at the right time and is just clicking on all cylinders in those other sports. But in the NBA, it's uh never happens. It's like the best team or the best player with the best assortment of guys around him, that team is typically the team that always wins. But the Knicks, it just it's just a magical run. They I just don't think they they just have this aura about them now of invincibility. I just it and no matter what how bad it looks or how bleak it seems, I mean, 29-point deficit in game four, down 20 in the fourth quarter, and they just find a way to get back. It's just it really is just an amazing story.

SPEAKER_01 15:34

This whole series, they've been down. If you look at it, every game the Knicks have won, they've been down big early. I might be biased because I've got so many people that I'm talking to, that I'm close to that are from that area, and I know how much they care. So it's inspiring for me to get to see them through all these decades of pathetic performance by their franchise in the front office to finally get this. But my long-winded question who are you, Jay Scapinak? Who who are you rooting for?

SPEAKER_00 16:02

Typically, Stefan, I in my young life, I was on top, man. I'll tell you. I was born and raised in Pittsburgh, the Steelers were good, the Penguins were good. I'm a diehard lifelong Kobe fan. The Lakers were good. Like, I I basically just always had a team that I loved that I was rooting for when I was young. And the second stage of my life now, at this point, all my teams stink for the most part. And I just I hate teams more than I love them now. So I'm generally rooting against things, not for things now in the second wave of my life. And the years, this the season always begins, Stephanie where, yes, you've you've noted and I've discussed, I am a Jokic supporter. So, yes, I want the Nuggets to win at the beginning of the year. But other than that, I don't want Steph to get another one. I don't want LeBron to get another one. And now I dislike the Thunder as well. So they're on the list too. I don't want them to get one. So those are the three teams. Other than that, I'm pretty much okay with anybody winning, but I have become captivated by the Knicks run throughout this time, like throughout the playoffs. So I was really feeling myself starting to route for them through the playoffs as they as it's gone on. But then I felt conflicted because the Spurs, I felt, did me a great, great uh bit of service by beating the Thunder and taking them out. So I felt indebted to them. So when this seat when this series started, I was conflicted. Me too. And I didn't, I didn't know. Like I would have been happy for either team. I would have felt really badly for either team that lost. So I think I landed on even before the magic really started happening in this series, I landed on the Knicks because to me, the Knicks may never get back. As great as they've been and as great as they've looked in these playoffs, this could just be one of those one-year magical outliers. Whereas the Spurs, I it's hard not to imagine them in the finals like four or five times in the next six years. So they're gonna have plenty of opportunities to win and win a lot more. So I've I've been rooting for the next for the for the players and for just the city and the fan base in general that have been just starving for some kind of success for so long.

SPEAKER_01 18:02

And I landed in the same spot for the same reasons. And to bring it full circle back to my original point of what a beautiful matchup this is, as opposed to just the thunder to me, are just so boring. Something we can all enjoy watching, the basketball, and you're kind of happy at the end of the day, either way.

SPEAKER_00 18:18

Exactly. And they've treated us honestly, they've treated us through every game as good. You mentioned the big leads, like the Knicks, the games they won, they were down by 14, 12, and 29 in those games. But like, despite the fact the games are like lopsided early, every game is down to the wire. Like every game. Like the first game was it was like a two-point game with a minute left. The second game was tied with nine seconds left. The third game was a two-point game with nine seconds left. And then this game was a one-point game with five seconds left. So, and then it was a one-point game with one second left. So, like every single game is a one possession score game. That's pretty crazy.

Ratings Surge And The NBA Rebound

SPEAKER_00 18:58

It's crazy. Like, I don't know if you've looked into this, but the I looked at the viewership right now. Going into game four, the highest uh watch game of the series was 23 million views. Wow, which is the highest since Jordan's last game in '98 when he won the his sixth and final championship, right? It's crazy. And it's and it's averaging 19 million viewers, which is also the highest other than that '98 series. So, like obviously, this has captivated the interests of not just the New York. Everyone wants to say, oh, this is because the Knicks have a massive fan base. I don't think it's just that. I think, yes, the Knicks are a portion of that, but then the other part is obviously Wemby. And then this the games are really good. So people are just getting behind it. The NBA is bouncing back finally. It's taken like 10 years since LeBron James destroyed the NBA for them to finally kind of feel like they're back. But this, I think this playoff run was the first time. I've been talking about it for years, like we're getting back, we're kind of coming back a little bit, but this playoff run was the first time I've actually felt like, okay, this is this kind of has a little bit of a feel of the way it did before. Like the LeBron era ruined everything.

SPEAKER_01 20:05

Well, and just to give context to people that don't know, so you said it's averaging 19 million. So, like LeBron and Anthony Davis, or Anthony Davis and LeBron rather, their bubble championship, I think, averaged like 7 million viewers. 7 million, 7. Yes.

SPEAKER_00 20:19

That the lowest watched finals in NBA history.

SPEAKER_01 20:23

Well, at a time when we were all locked in our homes and starred for something to watch, and we decided we'd rather watch sneaky peat on Amazon Prime than the NBA final. Anyway, but to your point, I think this is the most fun as a fan I've had watching basketball since Kobe retired.

SPEAKER_00 20:38

100 100%. I mean, I I honestly I quit watching basketball for a few years. I would watch the playoffs still just to root against, just to hate watch LeBron and root against him after Kobe retired. But there there was uh several years where I didn't watch a single NBA regular season game after Kobe retired. Basically, like Giannis kind of brought me back in, MVP defensive player of the year winner, won a championship with a tiny market with like pretty mediocre players around him. So that kind of he kind of got me back in. And then I saw, honestly, I started watching Jokic making fun of him and trying to make fun of the era. I'm like, look, you wait a second. You're telling me that this is the era of super athletes that nobody, none of the past great players that we've ever seen could possibly compete in this era. Yet you've got this dude who could literally run up and down the floor and jump off of a curb who is absolutely destroying this whole era. Like, is that for real? So I basically started just to make fun of him. And then the more I watched him, the more I fell in love with his gameplay and everything. So those two guys kind of brought me back. But even was I as I became a fan of them, I wasn't fully, I wasn't in enamored in the least with the overall product of the NBA. But like this year, I've seen some good, some steps in the right direction. You mentioned it earlier. I think the next step is why can't we apply the defensive efforts we've seen throughout the postseason to the entire season? Yeah. Like that, that would really because it was a, I think 160. 16 points per game on average in the regular season, which is the highest ever for any non-1960 season. Yeah. And now

Stat Inflation And Playoff Reality Checks

SPEAKER_00 22:08

in the playoffs, it's down like 10 points per game in the in the playoffs because they're actually playing and they're actually trying and competing on that thing.

SPEAKER_01 22:14

And that's the thing. Yeah, they all these idiots that either intentionally are lying or just too young or naive to know, like that say, oh, this is just because of everybody's so skilled, the skill all go away in the playoffs because, like you said, it's just the numbers fall off a cliff. And not to go too far down that road, but it's infuriating, I know, to both of us, that the numbers from this era, and it's like everyone in the media acknowledges it that it's this supercharged steroid era of stats, but then they still use the stats to denigrate previous players like Kobe or even Duncan or Nowitzki or whoever.

SPEAKER_00 22:49

I mean, look no further than the main guy, like the biggest, the greatest stat producer ever in Jokic. Like he is his numbers are insane looking, right? His analytics are insane looking. And look, in the playoffs, he still, his stat line still looked awesome in that putrid first round exodus to the Minnesota Timberwolves, who are basically perfectly constructed. For anybody that doesn't know, general manager that constructed Nicole Jokic's championship team in 2023 actually went to Minnesota in 2024 and built the perfect foil that could beat the Denver Nuggets, essentially, which is why the Timberwolves own the Nuggets, because the guy that built the Nugged the team in Minnesota to beat the Nuggets. And they have Rudy Gobert, by the way, who has more first-team All-NBA selections than any human being that has ever played professional basketball, not named Kobe, Kevin Garnett, Michael Jordan, or Gary Payton. Gary Payton, Kevin Garnett, Kobe, and Jordan. Other than that, they all have nine first-team defensive selections. This year, Gobert had his eighth, and he's a four-time defensive player of the year. So Jokic had to go against that dude for the entire series, and they lost, obviously. Basic stat line still looked great, right? 26.5 points, 13.5 rebounds, nine assists, but still down substantially like from the regular season. This guy shot six like 67% true shooting in the regular season, 56% from the field. He was down to 45%, though, in the playoffs. So, like, and same thing with SGA, your point earlier about how they're saying he's better than Kobe, because he averaged 30 points per game this year on 55% shooting from the field. The only guard in NBA history, Jordan included, to average 55% 30 plus. But when he got in the playoffs, it didn't look like that. Like look what happened in the in even in the series against the Lakers with older Marcus Smart now defending him, totally shut him down. If you look at after the first round, played the uh Suns, the Phoenix Suns, and they swept him, whatever. But in the second round, the Lakers and final series in the West against the Spurs, he averaged like 25 points per game on 42%.

SPEAKER_01 24:56

Which is about what he would have averaged in the 90s and the 2000s, is probably in that mid to high 20, 25 to 27, and in the low to mid-40 shooting percentage. And that's a great career. But it's not this.

SPEAKER_00 25:10

Exactly. But and people don't understand. They're like, oh, well, look at how much more efficient he is than Kobe. Look at how, look at all these things. But okay, but put him against defenses that aren't even as good as the defenses Kobe saw and had to play against throughout his entire career. Right, a much slower era, too. Like people walked the ball up. There was no spacing, everything was clogged in the in the middle. And still, even despite the fact he played much better defenses, by and large, and had a harder, just a harder overall era to be able to put numbers up. His numbers are still by and large ridiculous looking. And he's still top three in 50, 60, 40 point games all the time. So when people, yeah, people jump the gun, Stevin, and it is outrageous. Like everybody has to be compared to Kobe, or everybody has to be better than Kobe whenever they do anything of note in at any point in this NBA era.

SPEAKER_01 26:03

It's depressing for us because like I actually would love to be able to support SGA. I actually think he seems like a good kid, and he seemed and he's a diehard Kobe guy, apparently. But I just can't because of this BS. It's not even his fault. It's just they can't not attack his legacy because that's the mandate that I think LeBron got his heart broken by Kobe Scap. Honestly, that's my new theory. I was thinking about the other day is I think LeBron was a diehard Kobe fan when he came in. Kobe Shunden said, get away from me. I don't want anything to do with you. And then LeBron, he just can't let it go. I think it's like the high school sweetheart that broke his heart.

SPEAKER_00 26:38

That's my that's a good theory. I can see I can see that being true because you can see even when they were in mutual interviews or co-interviews or whatever, especially around the Olympic, the redeemed team stuff, you can see that LeBron was kind of fangirling over Kobe. And Kobe just wanted nothing to do with him. So it's true.

SPEAKER_01 26:58

Because he didn't respect it, because he he got just handed to him all the things that Kobe and Jordan and others had to work for.

SPEAKER_00 27:06

Exactly. And then it only got worse as LeBron jumped around the league to snatch all those cheap, easy rings. I think Kobe's disdain and resentment only grew. And he put on a good face when LeBron went to LA because you know, his longtime agent and very close friend, Rob Palenka, was in was highly invested in that working out. So Kobe, I think, you know, kind of let it go because he was retired and whatever. But I think in a in an honest moment, Kobe would have said, I am absolutely disgusted that this guy's gonna be able to do that.

SPEAKER_01 27:39

And I think that's why Lasisi did it, is for not just that reason, but I think that he thought, because he is a marketing genius, he's a media manipulation genius, or his team is, somebody is. And I think they thought, well, if I go to Kobe's team, then a portion of his fans are gonna have to love me and root for me. And it really kind of funnyly didn't work out that way. I mean, listen, I'm I'm was a lifelong leader. I you know, I've had to root against my own team for seven, eight years now. But yeah, I think that was a lot of the one thing I've been wanting to talk to you about, Scott. This

LeBron, Legacy Wars, And Media Power

SPEAKER_01 28:14

might be a differing opinion, which I get we agree on so much that I actually get excited when I there's something that we might disagree on because I'm like, oh, good, you know. So Luca with the Lakers, talking about modern players and talking about the statistic explosion that we've got going on here. I didn't have a lot of respect for Luca's game before the trade to the Lakers because honestly, he's like the white LeBron to me. Like the game has to revolve around him. He gets kind of the fake assist, seven, eight assists that LeBron's always gotten, and and James Harden's a good example of that. But when he came to LA and I saw the LeBron media machine starting to do what they do and destroy him, I started finding myself drawn to him and more connected to him. And then I started looking at the numbers and I'm like, you know, this guy is one of only two players in the history of basketball to ever average 32, 8, and 8. And he's done it more times than anyone. It's just him and Jordan, and he's done it, I think, twice, and Jordan's done it once. So I've become a Luca fan, or maybe I'm trying to force it a little bit because I'm jealous you've got your love affair with with Jokic, and I want somebody too in the modern, maybe to be Wimby. But tell me your thoughts on Luka Doncic, where you're at with him at this point.

Luka With The Lakers And Reframing Him

SPEAKER_00 29:25

So I was a Luka hater for most of the early part of his career, and I too just saw him as a one-sided, like offensive inflation kind of machine and didn't play on defense. But I had to change some of my theory about him when he got through the West that one year. Look, he beat the Clippers, who he wasn't supposed to beat in the first round. They were the five seeds. So they played the four-five matchup against the Clippers as the underdog, won it. Then they went on and played. People don't really remember this. Three years ago, Shea Gildis Alexander won, he finished runner-up to Nicole Jokic that year. So Shea lost to Nicole Jokic three years ago in MVP, then won the last two over Jokic. But that year that he finished runner-up to Jokic, the Nuggets and Thunder tied with the same number of wins that season, but the Thunder had the tiebreaker. So they were actually the one seed then. So they've been the one seed three straight years. Luka then beat that Thunder team in the second round. Then the Timberwolves presumptive massive favorites after they upset the Nuggets that year. And Luka went in and just dismantled that Minnesota Timberwolves team, beat them 4-1. Then they went into the finals and got, you know, completely shut down, and I think totally outmatched by that Boston Celtics team. And Luka had some bad moments in that finals. But I had to fundamentally revise my take on Luca after that run. And now I kind of look at him honestly, look, as like a Nicole Jokic or a Steph Curry player, where yes, he's not a great defender. He might not even be a good defender, but he can be a willing defender. And if you surround him with the right pieces, like Golden State did for Steph, and like Denver never has done for Jokic, I think Luca can be a top-line perennial kind of contender and playoff riser if he has the right pieces put around him. So that and that's on the Lakers to do it.

SPEAKER_01 31:13

Luca needs your support, Scap. And I did his super chat and I said Latvia. He's not from Latvia. I was thinking of Christapps Porzingis, but Slovenia, me and Luca, we need your help.

SPEAKER_00 31:23

Well, and look, my Step Steven, I am Scap Attack because my last name is Scapanak. Like I am slow, like I have Slovak, like I'm mainly Slovakian ancestry. So yes. And as much as I have railed against the formation of super teams and hate the idea of top five players joining, I would be fully behind a Nikola Jokic and Luka Doncic pairing in Tinseltown. Like bring it to me.

SPEAKER_01 31:49

Let's go. Um all right.

Game Five Pick And How It Ends

SPEAKER_01 31:53

I wanted to get your official pick. So my kind of, I guess maybe hot take opinion is I think whoever wins game five wins the series, which I know is not everybody thinks the Knicks are gonna win six. I kind of feel like the Knicks have a good shot to just win this next game in game five. But I think if they don't, I think the pressure all goes on them to win game six. And then if they don't pull that off, then it's Spurs and seven. So what's your official pick?

SPEAKER_00 32:17

Before, right before the series began, I picked Spurs and seven. And then, but I said while I was making that pick, we did I did a little live stream pre-pre-series show, and I said, listen, Spurs and seven. However, if the Knicks steal game one, I will immediately on the show following it flip-flop to Knicks and six. We'll become my caveat.

SPEAKER_01 32:36

What's Gary Matt about?

SPEAKER_00 32:38

I gave the pre-game caveat. I didn't know that. Okay, I missed that. Right. So then, and then when the Knicks won game one, I came on immediately at the game after. I was like, look, I said yesterday or two days ago that I was gonna do it. I'm flipping to Knicks and six. And I think, look, it's the 3-1 is an impossible. And it's and the Spurs have the advantage of the fact that they only got to win one on the road. So like, I don't know that the Knicks will win game five, but to your point, they gotta win five or six. If they do not win five or six, they're obviously losing the series in seven at San Antonio. I think five could be a good game that they just steal because the Spurs are gonna be shell-shocked. They're gonna anticipate that the Knicks are just gonna lay down and be content with going back home and and closing it out at home in game six. And that's not what the Knicks are. That's not what their DNA has been this whole postseason run. So I you make a good point that that could be a potential actually trap game for the Spurs, even though they're down 3-1 and it's an absolute must-win for them, of course. But they it might be, they might get a trap game. And then if the Knicks somehow come out, they've had slow starts every game. If the Knicks come out and hit them with a flurry early, then that crowd goes dead silent, and then all of a sudden, it is a tough atmosphere as a as a young home team that's down 3-1, and they have to think about, well, now we have to come back and win two more. Yeah. So I feel like that. I think I think that's a good point you make that they might go ahead and just win this thing maybe in five. And that would probably be best for the city of New York. Otherwise, uh if they would win or lose that game six in New York, oh my God. Like they I said on the live stream, you got to call the Avengers in. Get the Avengers to justice league, get everybody to save New York because I can't even imagine. If I lived in the city seven, I and it got back to six, I would I would be vacating. I would, I would be, I would be getting like an 80-mile radius outside of the city.

SPEAKER_01 34:35

Go to Buffalo for the weekend, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 34:37

Yes, win or lose that that game six, just total anarchy in the streets.

SPEAKER_01 34:42

That's that's a good point. And they've got a lot of that going on anyway, right now. But

Betting, Momentum, And Final Thoughts

SPEAKER_01 34:46

yeah, yeah, well, and I'll tell you this, I guess it maybe it's not that crazy of a take because I was looking, I don't want to sound like I'm like an addicted gambler or something because I do it very little, but I I went on to Cal she, which again is legal, guys, and the odds of the Spurs winning is only five to one, which the biggest gambling win I personally have ever had in my life. I did what I call an emotional hedge bet. I used to bet on LeBron to win, and that way, if he did win, at least I got some money, so yeah, you didn't have to feel so bad. And so when they were down 3-1 to the Warriors, I got them at 22 to 1, and then they came back and won because of the Draymond suspension. That's the biggest odds win I've ever had. So from 22 to 1 in 2016 to five to one, apparently the books don't think it's that unlikely.

SPEAKER_00 35:33

Right. And again, you got to look at when it happened with Cleveland, they had to win two road games. Like they had to stave off elimination on the road, then they went home, and that that you would presume that would be a win. Then they had to go back into game seven then and win on the road. So that's way, a way bigger ask than the Spurs. And you got to figure, look, the Cavs actually, because Curry was hurt or whatever was happening with him, the Cavs had the two best players on the floor in that series. They had LeBron and Irving. But like in this series, not only do the Spurs have two of the next three in their building, look, Wemby is still the best player in the series. By far. And they've we've just mentioned they've been up double digits in every single game. There's a star over 10 in every game. So like they easily they could do it. Like it's not that outrageous to suggest that it's possible. So you're right. It would behoove the Knicks to get the hell out of the series ASAP because the longer you keep them around, the more you know, momentum and confidence that they gain, and the harder it's going to be to beat them the further it goes.

SPEAKER_01 36:33

I'll go next, game five. I'm hedged either way, so I'm good.