Finals Week

The Brothers give their NBA Finals picks, chime in on Caitlin Clark, and take us out to the ballgame. 

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Chapters

• 3:09 NBA Finals
• 31:02 Caitlin Clark
• 49:26 Take me out to the ball game

Transcript

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The Blucifer brothers are back, although not a lot of Colorado sports are. So what are we going to do? Talk about the NBA finals. What are we seeing in these two teams that the Nuggets can learn from? Maybe steal a trick or two here and there. And the Caitlin Clarke drama. We have our take on it, how it relates to national media versus local media and the Yoakich debacle of two years ago. And fun with vowels. All that and more. Dan, play that funky music. All right. We are here on a BEA beautiful Tuesday. It's a little hot here. Uh, I spent all outside grilling, uh, playing some, uh, Yokech and Murray with the sun. He now says, uh, dad, you be Murray. I'll be Yokech, which is great. Unbelievable. We're developing a two man game. Yeah, uh, so you're setting a lot of picks out there Uh, he hasn't mastered dribbling nor picks yet Um, but he likes it when I pass it to him. I'll tell you that and uh, he likes Today he discovered that it's more fun Um if my wife plays defense than if it's the three of us all on a team Because then him and I can just try to keep it away from her Which is pretty good. Um, so yeah, don't let me play defense. Don't, don't let me play defense out there, Kyle. You know what I'll do. You've seen me. I do know lots of fouling, lots of fouling out there. Uh, no, the Patrick Beverly of defense. Oh my God. I'm a lockdown defender. Patrick believes that as well. I don't like that. I can't wait till Patrick goes on his pod. Patrick is dirty. Talking about him. I'm not dirty. That's true. Yeah, you've never actively attempted to injure anyone that I remember. Yeah, I don't think yeah. All right. Uh, this is a brilliant segue by two true professionals here. All right. Uh, I am Kyle Poland joined as always by my brother, Ryan Poland, and we're going to start off here. I think the biggest story NBA finals. Uh, I wanted to get into some NBA finals with you, Ryan. I wanted to talk some of this Caitlin Clark drama. Uh, cause I think it's applicable here in Denver in some weird ways. And I'll kind of make my case to you and kind of get your thoughts on all of it. And then you went to a Rockies game. So I want to, uh, wrap up Rockies games to Rockies games. So I just want to know more about your viewing experience, how things were, you know, about how it's all going. So, but let's start with the biggest story, the NBA finals, uh, Dallas Mavericks, uh, they knocked out the Kitty Katz, uh, of the greatest shooting big man of all time. They somehow overcame him, uh, in Carl, uh, and the new face of the league, Anthony Edwards. Uh, they, Hey, I love Ann. Let's not bring Ann into this. There's no ant slander on this podcast You write, you write, you write. Uh, but we can, we can slander KAT and Rudy Gobert all we want. And it was very funny to watch Jaden McDaniels get fouled by KCP. And when they were trying to bounce the dunk to themselves in garbage time, into their season ending, uh, that was pretty funny. Uh, but, um, Mavericks made it through. And now we have the Celtics, uh, who made it through the JV division. Um, what I guess are your thoughts on this? Everyone's talking about kind of the big two and what that looks like here. Uh, to me, I don't really care about anything after one. I think Luke is the best player in this series. And then I think you can put Jalen Kyrie. And Tatum in a variety of orders, all depending on the game. But to me, this series comes down to the fact that the next four to five players you're going to say are all going to be Celtics. And that's kind of where it was with last year with the Nuggets, where you were like, okay, like we have Yoka choose the best. Maybe you can make a case that next you could put Bam and them ahead of Murray if you want to. But then it's a long run before we get to Gabe Vincent, ladies and gentlemen. Like it is. It's like Christian or Gabe Vinson And I think I think we would both say that this is with or without Christophe's like Christophe's doesn't even have to play and I think you at least named for Celtics before you get to another Maverick So and but and the Mavericks have also just been playing sort of unbelievable Like those role players were having otherworldly experiences. It felt a lot like the Wolves series with The nuggets a little bit where those role players just play out of their mind and it's like you can Stay competitive in games and the Wolves didn't some of them but they You know, you can't you when role players are playing like if if PJ Washington, I guess is gonna hit Quarter threes at 80%. Like the Celtics might be in a little bit of trouble, but I just don't, I don't think that that's probably going to happen. Um, so I also think the size here and the wings is the thing that are a lot in terms of the thing I was Kyle Anderson closing out. Yeah. The thing I was going to bring up comfortable. Is you the Celtics like that? We we see this year after year, right? The playoffs are matchup dependent like the wolves were a great matchup for the for the nuggets They were a terrible matchup for the mavericks The the way you attack the maverick or the wolves is with two elite Guards like you need unbelievable backcourt and they had that and the nuggets didn't for uh to put it mildly, um, so I think you You know, uh, but this matchup I guess to move to the finals This matchup is really tricky for the maps to figure out because the celtics have so many bodies to throw at Luca they can guard him with fought their literal starting five Uh, so it's, it becomes really tricky when you, I think this series really boils down to how out of body Kyrie can be, but they also have a lot of bodies for him. Um, you've got Derek White, you've got Drew Holiday, you have like some of the, If you built a team to try to guard Kyrie Irving and Luka Doncic It would look a little similar to the Celtics because both of the Jays can guard, uh Luka You know, you can throw a smaller body at him. You can throw a bigger body at him It's it's just hard for him to hunt mismatches, right like he hunted Rudy Gobert like he and i'm not saying this. I guess Hunted him, but i'm not i'm not saying this to them to hunt Yeah, totally and I and he's gonna get his like he's too good for anybody to shut down Nobody's gonna be like, oh wow, luca You know averaged 15 points for the season for the series like he's gonna get his 30 because he's otherworldly but it's it really is sort of reminiscent of that son's nugget series where It's death by a thousand cuts like katie and booker can be going off and having 60 points between them But if you can't stop them on the other end and nobody else is able to get off like you're not gonna win games You're gonna score 100 points and get beat So this is, uh, this is why it's a weird thing. And to bring it back to the Nuggets, why I think any large scale panic from the Nuggets is a fan base is wild because, uh, both of these teams in the finals are great matchup for the Nuggets. We beat the hell out of the Celtics twice in the regular season and we have owned the Mavs. They beat us later in the season, but like We would Jokic would pick their ass apart. They don't have anybody big. Like, they're And so, while these teams are, like you said, a good thing against the Mavs Um, or against the, uh, Timberwolves. The, the Nuggets caught a bad matchup with the Wolves. And I saw a stat that they converted on 10 percent less of Jokic's potential assists than they did in the regular season. So like that's the series and they still should have won. They were up 20, right? Um, so I think fatigue played a much larger factor than like, Oh, they got figured out or they, you know, couldn't do it. Um, but the other thing that I wanted to talk about here, because I think we've seen a lot of, uh, mock drafts have the nuggets targeting the backup center. Uh, we've seen, uh, Durant Holmes. Out of Dayton has been a popular name. That's been thrown about, uh, Philip Kowski from Duke has been thrown about. I think a lot of people are like, Hey, who's the next lively, right? Where you used to say, Hey, you're a rookie, all the rotations, all that stuff. You're going to make so many stupid mistakes. That it is really hard to do that. Now it helps when you have Tyson Chandler coaching you, uh, one of the best at rotating and making the right reads and all that stuff, but it is a younger league in terms of, we are seeing more and more teams that play rookies that play like the Celtics are kind of a traditional juggernaut, right? Like they've. Had the scars they've had their runs and they don't really rely on anyone who hasn't been there and done that before right, whereas like You have lively you have gafford. You have these players who haven't done this on this level before And I wonder if the finals is where they get exposed, but I wanted to get your take on like Can you if you're the nuggets, can you draft someone and expect them to be? Like you're back up five. Is that realistic in today's where it's basically superstars making dumb money and then kind of that like 12 to 15 million a year is getting harder and harder to get, and it's a lot more young and rookie contracts. I think you definitely can because you're really only asking for maybe six minutes. Because you're going to play a small lineup, you might, you know, I think the roster is going to feel a lot different next year. And I also don't think anybody should be getting any, you know, great idea prizes for the Nuggets potentially drafting a center. Like we're pretty young and deep at every position except Point guard, and that's really only because Strother and Pickett didn't play at all And we didn't really we don't even know whether they're good or not because we didn't see them play So I think we know Strother's good We saw them mess up the G League both of them had a lot of success in the G League. But Strother played And he had some heaters at ball arena. He has moments. Yeah, he can shoot the ball, but that's different than what we need him to do, you know, in a playoff situation. But anyways, that's, that's not, but you know, we're, we're lacking. I'm just saying you got to see more glimpses. From him than we did for picket, right? Sure but i'm just saying like you can you can go find a big man to protect the rim and rebound like I don't think that's like I think a young player can go do that if he's bought into that being the role. Um, So, you know go get zach ed. Sure. Let's do it. Yeah, he's gonna be gone, but I know i'm just messing with uh Yeah, okay. So I You I do think that you're 100 percent correct to point out that what the Nuggets are trying to do at the back end of the first round is actually easier than what the Mavericks were trying to do, because they were looking for, I mean, lively starts and is important, like, And they didn't know it. And we are looking for someone. I don't think they knew what they were getting there. I, I don't think. For five minutes. No, of course not if anyone knew lively would have been a lottery pick and they would have never seen him exactly So like I I just don't you redrafted it a year from now. He'd be a top 10 pick I think that it's it's really difficult to find that starting level talent in the draft I really don't think it's that Difficult to find a backup. Um, it just feels like and Calvin Booth has bad players that you get to play against now, even against good teams. The, the, the thing that I worry about, the thing that keeps me up at night is Calvin Booth getting cute. Because I think he's sniffing his own farts a little bit in the draft and He should be I mean they smell great but it's it gets a little dangerous when you start taking swings when you're a Developed team as opposed to being able to develop this talent because I don't blame Michael looking at you like a bowl I I would not you know, I would not want to play Michael Strother like when I'm looking at that bench, I would go to a lot of guys before I got to Strother Uh because you want to win the game and it's not about developing Michael Malone's job is not about developing the talent. That is not his role His role is to manage the roster to win the game in front of him. So It's it's difficult to find those minutes, but he's got to um, and I think it it's It worries me if he drafts this, like, developmental, like, freak athlete, but Malone isn't going to play him because he lacks the fundamentals necessary to keep Mike Malone from having a fucking heart attack. Like, I think that it could be potentially difficult for me as a fan to swallow. So I hope that we draft more of a safe thing, that we know Malone Those are the sort of traits that I'm looking for, that I need us to deliver on. Um, all right. Uh, before we get into our finals picks, I have a little story time. Uh, I am going to be a Duron Holmes evangelist on this podcast. I don't know who that is. Tell me. Okay. So we have a mutual friend, Brent. He is interesting basketball takes, but he pays attention to college basketball more than I do. So we're sitting up there watching March Madness and I'm getting, I'm asking him about what Betsy's making and he says, my favorite play of the day. He says, Dayton, Dayton, Dayton, Dayton. I go, Oh, okay. He says, day of a guy. He might go number one overall in the draft. Oh my god, okay, like dude Talent generally wins out in the first round, you know, like if you got a stud like that I said, well, do they do they have the cards to get it? Oh, they just rain hell from three my god I'm, like man, this sounds like a mid major dream. I can't wait to join you on this money Uh, they got down by about 20 in the first half and I was sitting there just talking innumerable shit About this pick. I'm just like wow, look at this rainmaker homes over here Wow, there's the number one overall pick I looked up mock drafts just to see that he was going in the late first round And I was like, he's not the number one overall pick in one of the worst drafts of all time. What are we doing here? Dayton came back from down 20 and they were down like 12 with like five minutes left and went on a rampage to come back in the first round and win me a bunch of money. Uh, so I love Mr. Holmes. Uh, I love everything about him. Uh, he has, he's kind of, and I'm interested to hear your take on him after this scouting report. So, he's smart, he has a great like 15 footer, and he's used to being the focus of it. But, he has been the focal point of a team. Like he's used to having the ball. He's used to playing it through. So on the one hand, that's kind of good because it lets you play the same style as Jokic, um, for those five to 10 minutes with a guy who's used to having the ball in his hands, kind of a center focus thing. And he does have, um, shooting ability. He was under a mid major, you know, like he's got skills. I think he's pretty ready to contribute in an off the bench role. And when you get taken at the end of the first round, you know what it is. So, have I sold you on my boy, Mr. Holmes, or are you concerned that this is a guy who has maybe inflated his stats? Which is a college basketball, normal red flag for me, because the rest of his teammates suck so he just got to shoot all the time. Uh, and there are no other Dayton players who are going to be drafted. I'll tell you that. All right. Well, uh, I will say while you were giving that scouting report, I did do a quick Google, uh, and first of all, I love that he's a second. You always want to be a second. Dayron Holmes, the second, are you kidding me? I'd love, automatically, uh, rockets up the, the board. Way cooler than a junior. Second of all, it's D A, capital, A N. Ron, which is absolutely what you want that to be. I thought you were saying Dewan at first, and I gotta be honest, I was less excited. Did you think of Dewan Blair? Exactly. He had no ligaments and he played for the Spurs and he's kind of fat. Yeah, I didn't like that. Does this guy look fat? He was 40 when he was 19 as well, Kyle? No, he doesn't Ryan. But the other thing that I really like is that he for, it wasn't just last year, it was two years in a row. He shot over 55 percent from the field and uh, he made it. He did. Uh, he was one, he, well, he shot pretty well from three, but he only was attempting two and a half game. So he was making one. Uh, but I love that. I mean, we're talking about a 6'10 guy who the first highlight, uh, that I'm seeing on ESPN is him two handed jamming over some guy who looks like he's in a West Virginia uniform. I love that. Like, I, so, and it seems like this is not just you speculating about where we're taking to Ron Holmes. There's talk, there was a post on Real GM saying that he canceled workouts amid, uh, suspicion that we promised him a first round draft pick, and so he's not working out for any other teams. Uh, so that makes me more nervous. Cause the last person we promised a roster spot, it didn't go great. Reggie Jackson well the other person the other person who is rumored to like Daron Holmes is the Oklahoma City Thunder. So Anybody that Presti is trying to draft I want them. So let's get him agreed All right If we can't get him, we have to get a knock cheeks. I mean, you're not wrong. He can take a post game, uh, photo with Grady Dick. And, uh, he was his teammate at Dayton. And I think he, I think he was probably, you know, as, uh, he's a high riser as well, not a high riser. I watched that Dayton team for two whole games in that tournament. And let me tell you. I didn't see anybody I liked besides Mr. Holmes. Um, clearly all right introduced to a knock cheeks Not wrong I was oh no, I was uh, I did sarcastically say to brendan halftime I'm, like look at look at mr. Clapping cheeks out there Missing another so I don't think he shot well in the first draft But I'm sure he was integral in the comeback. Uh, shout out, Mr. Cheeks, uh, as I call him, sir. Cheeks, if you will. Uh, all right. Enough of the story time. Uh, there'll be plenty of time for draft talk and all that. Uh, NBA finals prediction, Ryan. Um, I am going for two Celtics. I really wanted to go for one, but the Celtics do such dumb things for. At least two games and I think it might take them time to adjust to the fact that they're playing against an actual basketball team. And they'll be like, what? You guys can like make open shots and stuff. Like this is normally when the, uh, everyone in the East dribbled off their clown shoes. Like, I can't believe it. Luca dribbled it three straight times and scored a basket. That was unreal. We haven't seen this level of competition in quite some time. But I do think the Mavericks are slightly overrated. Uh, I think the Celtics are slightly underrated and I think that they are. The depth and the amount of things they can throw at the Mavericks, um, frightens me for Dallas here. Uh, yeah, I think so. There, there are two parts of my prediction here. The first part being, um, I also will, uh, just ride or die for my guy. Jokic and I know who Jokic is cheering for in this series So i'm going to publicly say this is a four three Mavericks victory with Luka just putting his nuts on the little leprechaun at half court of the Celtics arena in game seven um It'd be the only way he could top uh what he did to Rudy Gobert In terms of mental warfare I tried to say he was speaking slovenian Was uh, Unbelievable. I didn't say that. Nah, you did say that His little smile that he was saying it's perfect what does bitch mean in slovenian What is you can't fucking guard me, you little bitch, meet in Slovenian. Oh, it's I'm cooking out here. Okay. Yeah. Yeah. No, that's fair. That seems friendly. Um, you say that a lot. I do think that you're right. That the Celtics are a little underrated in this actual case. Like my, my head says that the Celtics. Have been sort of it hasn't just been the playoffs where they've kicked the shit out of everybody They've been kicking the shit out of everybody all year uh their pointer differential was insane, so It is it feels like a tough task for luca to do but i'm gonna take four three maps Okay, I like that. Um Final thing here that Luca's Slovenian native tongue reminded me of who does he call a bitch first in this series if you had to guess There's been a lot of rumors. He doesn't like Kristaps like he like people in Dallas genuinely don't like Porzingis So they clearly hated him. Yeah, he would be the favorite Drew's not gonna talk to him. Tatum won't talk to him. Jalen's too smart to talk to him. Derek White. Derek White's getting called a bitch Wow Yeah, I think that's a great sleeper. That hurts my feelings by the way a great a great colorado product there at Derek White Why are we cheering for him? No, I think it's just because a lot of men, uh, especially in colorado Uh, we're holding out for a growth spurt that never came. It did for Derek White. They're just like, dear, it doesn't matter that I'm 30, alright? Derek, he had his late in life, and look at him now, he's a stud. Yeah. Yeah, Derek White's not, uh, he's not gonna talk to him, but you might be right, that like, Luca just might be pissed that a Boston fan, 100%. And Derek White will just catch the stray bitch. And Derek White can be, like, he's in your business on defense, like, he, and I think Luka, you know, Derek White will be politely talking to an official and Luka will walk over and just absolutely, out of nowhere, like, I'm not saying he's going to deserve it. You fucking fouled me, bitch. Yeah, yeah, it feels right. All right. Um, okay. I like how Cavalier Luka is with it. He just will give it to anybody. When he was giving it to those Oklahoma City fans. Oh, warmed my soul. That is super. What if Jokic just genuinely didn't like one player like that in the league? And it was just like everyone in the league started noticing and it became like a point in viewing. And it was just, you know, Jokic should be someone random, and it'd be someone who sucks. Like, so, Jokic like, nah, this guy pisses me off, and he just talked to him the whole game. And, like, the rest of the season, he's just normal Jokic, but this is one game, he just goes like Luka. And just talks. I think that. I do hope that we get a heel turn from Jokic a little bit. I know we're derailing a little bit here, but it would be my favorite Jokic era. If he came back and was like, I actually really don't care now. And I'm going to say exactly how I feel all the time. You all might not like that as much either, but, uh, Eddie just was sort of an asshole to everybody. And then he's just gonna say whatever he wants. Listen, brother, I, I mean, I busted his ass the entire night. I don't know what you want me to do. Uh, I, I had 13 assists in the first quarter, I think. I mean, They cannot really do anything against me. So it's not that difficult to play basketball when they are that bad. That would be great. I can't wait for him to talk about the Timberwolves like that in four years. When all those contracts come due, uh, it's going to be next year, buddy. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Um, all right. So let's, that's actually, hold on, hold on, hold on. Did you see that DNVR said that we were going to potentially sign Gordon Hayward? Are they trolling me? They had Gordon Hayward and Danilo Gallinari as our free agency targets and I almost committed Harry Carey on the part of Porch No, we should not get either one of those two guys Neither one of them has a knee between of them. Gallinari is much more likable than Gordon Hayward Uh, and he said that we were his favorite place to play and like listen, I I've said some things You To Gallari since he's Yeah, those are unprovoked at Denver. Yeah. And those are unprovoked and unnecessary. I, I am just saying, I would have to publicly apologize. Yeah, for sure. Yeah. I had a Nuggets fan yell at me for being too mean to gallari. That's, and she wasn't wrong , uh, in my opinion, uh, he did only play like 53 total games. So, uh, listen. Anyone who says Denver was their favorite place to play. I'm never gonna boo him. Yeah. Well, he didn't play So maybe that was his favorite part. Listen, he played until his knee blew out the first time All right so speaking of Kind of media narratives and what's going out there. Obviously the other big thing that's been there because, uh, the NBA, for some reason, just schedules, the NBA finals, no matter what. Uh, so with two short series, we've had a long layoff, uh, and Kennedy Carter started it all for the Chicago sky by, uh, just unnecessarily hip checking. She got a running start, hip checked her, and then taunted her, and then didn't talk to the media afterwards, and then was like, no regrets, later. Uh, I was like, well, Chennedy, you were drafted fourth overall, uh, and you've bounced around the league and had Condrict detrimental to the team in multiple places. I think maybe you should look at yourself a little bit here. That's not the sterling analysis that we can expect from ESPN, so of course it became a thing. Uh, it started off when Pat McAfee went on his show and, uh, referred to Caitlyn as that white bitch. Uh, in a positive way, talking about how all the difference in the numbers is all Caitlin Clark. Like, he's like, let's stop pretending like it's a whole rookie class or it's a whole movement or it's all that. And he went through, like, the sold out games, the ratings, uh, even like NBA TV. Cause he's like, obviously you can't compare ESPN to like something on a lesser thing. And Caitlin Clark does murder everyone in those numbers. But, um, and then it became a viral thing where, uh, the analyst for ESPN was on first take, um, and she was saying, Hey, Stephen, you could have been promoting this product for, you could have been doing more for this product and Stephen was outraged and they talked and all that, and then they came today and Stephen said. Um, you know, uh, everyone's mad because, um, she's black players and black people in general haven't gotten enough credit and he made sure to try to, you know, It was the most annoying thing because he made it look like he was trying to take the high road because he was like No, I want everyone to know this is just my opinion So anything you can come to me for like acting like he's gonna say something wild And then he just says the most like mundane take that like I think now anyone who's read tennessee coats agrees with Uh, it was just like basic Tonisi coats, uh, Tonisi, Tonisi, Tonisi coats. Sorry, but you know, basically it's been a very, it's a very basic, like boring take that's like, Hey, there's racism in all areas of life. So it plays into sports, all this stuff. And we kind of experienced this here two years ago with the Yoka chan MVP and bead, um, Perkins saying it was only cause he's white. Um, all of that kind of stuff. So I just thought my biggest takeaway from this was none of these people are just watching the games. And commenting and trying to break down basketball at this point, because if you're just trying to break down basketball, you can say, uh, like the McAfee showing them, they're like, well, why is everyone, you know, it seems like that's priority number one. And Brianna Stewart was on their show and she was like, Well, yeah, I mean she's really good like I think uh, If you can stop her you probably got a pretty good chance to win Like yeah, we're gonna face guard her the rest of their team sucks was basically what she was saying, which is uh, you know in a diplomatic way, uh So I think there's some of that. I think there's some of it where there's Opportunities where Clark can, will have to learn how to try to play without the ball in her hands all the time. Like she was kind of a Harden esque, Luka esque player. And now we've seen this year in the playoff run, it's not as much of a heliocentric model for the Mavs. And he'll give it up and you even saw him Uh, people used it as a way to make fun of gobert But like he went to his guard and was like no go at him. That's a mismatch I don't need the ball back like, you know what I mean? Like kind of empowering his teammates in ways we didn't see and I think clark can uh grow in that and will But that's none of these discussions And the chennedy carter part it's like no one talks about her You Kind of history and like the fact that she's kind of had a rough start herself In the league and she was a stud at texas a& m and hit huge shots and Hasn't made it and has bounced around and you know what now at this point? She's probably looking like hey, I need to be in an I need to be a defensive player. I need to be a stopper I gotta be who kind of that scrappy pat bev to catch on somewhere rather than being a stud It's and people are not talking about actual basketball. Yeah, I agree with you. It's it's ridiculous because I mean, to be fair, I am not your WNBA source here, like, I, it's just yet to catch on in my brain, like, it just ha I haven't gotten as invested into it as you will, so I'm gonna trust you on your basketball takes, but the thing that I think has been missing in, like, the narrative around this, is that we're talking about, like, who deserves credit for the growth of the WNBA, right? Where are the old heads? Like, I want to hear from, like, the Don Staley. Like, what do they have to say to be, like, you know, And Don Staley was unbelievably kind. When talking about Caitlin Clark and that's kind of what I mean has had no hate like it actually does feel Personal with these players and her more because I think everybody outside of the game right now is just Happy that the game is getting that these players are getting to showcase their skills to a different audience That wasn't going to be invested before Caitlin Clark Like, I'm sorry if you don't accept that that's part of the reality of the WNBA right now. I don't know what to say to you. Like, you are dumb. You can't look at the, the ratings in the final four and say, Oh no, none of that carried over. None of that's Caitlin Clark. Like, yes, the WNBA has been building. It's been building for 25 fucking years. Like this isn't just the last five years of like, Oh, this is pretty good. Like there have been points where when Lisa Leslie and all those people were playing, you know, like those were big time events that it didn't happen as consistently as it does now. And obviously it's not. It's a bigger product now, but like, I haven't heard those old heads be like, Hey, what the fuck? Like, we were here. Like, we did this too. Like, it's not just you, Cheddity, and you, like, body checking Caitlin Clark is not good for the game. Like, you are adding to, you're making it a spectacle, and to your point, it Takes away from what is and should be just focus on a good product that a lot of people really enjoy And I think that's what's gotten lost. It doesn't have to be like Okay to give people the background of chennedy carter. She's kind of like patrick beverly So when Patrick Beverly does something who you don't compare me to earlier in the podcast, by the way This is slander on my name now. So now you've got me in a position that i'm defending chanity and patrick beverly This is not a good position for me to be um, but like my point is is that this doesn't need to be some big referendum on how You The rest of the league is playing or how the rest of the league there's going to be physicality And that's on the officials. No one was saying Oh, everyone must hate jamal murray in the league. Look at how these timberwolves are fouling the shit out of him No, we all just said, Mark Davis is a moron. I can't believe he still works in the NBA and we move right along that ref who didn't even call a foul. There sucks. They blow. That's the story here that ref blows. And if you are going to allow more skilled and better players to get held and grabbed and all of that stuff, then you should do it as a competitor. Especially if that person can bomb 40 footers and is the reason that a lot of people are in that building. So that energy is going to get buzzy. If she starts hitting three, you should grab the shit out of her. If the refs are going to let you, that's a good strategy. I don't want to bring this back to us. But it's why I foul the hell out of you every time we play on one on one. Nobody's calling it. And it's the only way I have a possibility to win. So it's, it's stupid of me not to foul the shit out of you. You're not gonna call it. It's, it's, you're not gonna say foul. So I'm going to push the line of where you will actually say that is a foul. Give me the ball back. I'm gonna find that line and I'm gonna ride it. I'm gonna ride it hard and hope that, you know, we squeak out a couple threes. Uh, and the WNBA is behaving a lot like me, which isn't good. That isn't a positive thing. Like, uh, but my point is, and it's all, that wasn't your point. It was close. Uh, but my first point is that this narrative should have been about basketball and should have been about holding officials accountable because hold on, no, hold on, put a good product out there. That is why the whistle is tighter in the NHL. That's why they tightened it up in the NBA because they were tired of seeing McKinnon and great players like that. And it happened before McKinnon to be clear. But they were tired of seeing the Red Wings and the brain dead devils just grab and hold the avalanche. But you, is this a WNBA problem though? Like, do you think that they're markedly worse than, NBA officials because I know that oh, yeah, they are Terrible right and it's even worse because they're a little bit sexist I think the officials, I think the officials are like, I'm not going to sit here and defend officials, but that job is incredibly hard. And they do, uh, a really good job on about 98 percent of the calls and the 2 percent is sometimes glaring and in important moments but like sometimes on a replay like you'll watch it back and you'll be like that can't have been right and they're right like That's fucking incredible. Like they make a lot of calls every game, but I agree with you. As someone who watches the WNBA, it's not that high in the WNBA. Okay. But that's, that's why I was asking because I do feel like, I do feel like official's kid. Remember his last name, Ryan? Cause that's what the WNBA refs are. Cheeks. I do feel like sometimes. Straight cheeks, Ryan. The the NBA officials get a bad rap But if the WNBA is markedly worse, which would make sense because they're not paying their players So they certainly aren't paying the officials like you're not going to get the best there. It's like trump said they're not bringing our best Yeah, they're not sending their best, you know, you get what you pay for it's it's bad but so I think when people say Like, Hey, Caitlin is our most marketable person. We need to change the way the game is officiated so that she doesn't get mauled. I'm like, we shouldn't let anyone get mauled. Stop letting them get good players get mauled. There are rules against mauling. There are rules against mauling. Kelsey Plum. Is dirty as hell. You should absolutely not let people grab and hold Kelsey plum. It, I want to see Kelsey plum dance. She was the D one way leading score. She's on the ACEs. She's unbelievable. I want to see Sabrina dance with the Liberty. I don't want to see her get held and grabbed and all this BS. It's terrible. So that's the first point. And then the second point is that I thought it was telling was how little the big media heads know. And I'm sorry, I don't ever go to Stephen A. Smith and Shannon Sharp for basketball knowledge. I never do. I never will. I never do. They have terrible takes, uh, Will Bond, all those guys, Kendrick Perkins, all of them are terrible. The NCAA women's booth is awesome, but that's about the only thing that for like basketball knowledge, I would watch even the inside. The NBA guys are funny as hell, but I wouldn't trust their basketball takes. Like they openly admit that they don't watch the game. They don't watch that. They're at least honest about it. Right. Yeah. And so to me. I think this is, and why I think it connects to the nuggets and the abs and all of these kinds of things. If you're frustrated with the dialogue around your favorite player, be it in Indiana, be it in wherever don't listen to national people, like that's the only way this changes, because when people click on it and people engage with it and people do all of this stuff. Even if it's everyone saying this is stupid espn doesn't care until you say i'm not Listening i'm not clicking. I'm not engaging. I'm not doing that and here in denver we are blessed to have Unbelievable people covering our teams who are really passionate about it and I think really You and I uh, and who really care About the teams and who want to, uh, do a good job and want to be honest about it. And they're not just like blatant homers. They're not just blatant. Um, things I saw, um, uh, Ryan Blackburn had a great take about how sometimes, you know, Nuggets fans in an effort to defend the Oakage can demonize the supporting cast or make it lesser. Um, I think we have. does a great job with Broncos, with, um, the, uh, see you buffs coverage. Um, there's just tons of passionate local people and just support that. And you don't have to have your don't go to the bar. The bar is a bad deal. Yeah. The bar is a bad deal. Don't go to the bar. You could pay for the website, but don't give him any extra money for free. I mean, make the bar better and then I'll go to the bar. I'll pay for your coverage, but I'm not going to the bar. Don't go to any bars. Okay, Brian. All of all of the bars that I go to have valves in them. I see. I like it. I don't know how to transition out of that. But yeah, I guess. No, I think you're right. I think that There's passionate people here and teams, there's an obsession with being like, well, the biggest people aren't talking about us. You don't want the biggest people talking about you. No, they're going to do it stupidly. And even when they were talking about the nuggets after the NBA finals, and you know, I was consuming everything. I found myself enjoying way much more talking with you on this podcast or talking with, um, you know, listening to local stuff because it was so much more in depth. It was so much more about the journey rather than like a 15 minute, like, all right, so the Nuggets did this, uh, and LeBron and free agency, like, you know, repetitive, right? Like, They, they can really only talk about it in like a surface level way. Most surface level. And so you, you can't, you have to be able to, if you're engaged and you're actually a fan, you get to dive a second and a third and right now I'm in approximately the seventh layer of hell with the nuggets, but I'm still deep in the mourning process and it's only June 4th. So, uh, that, that process pulled. The healing will begin after the finals are over. Uh, and then the, uh, the hype train will, will start, uh, collecting. Yeah. Yeah. Once we get homes, that's, that's, Oh my God. I'm buying a Jersey if we get homes. That's Holmes the second like give me that already. I don't yeah, it's just great Uh, I might make one right now let's Let's wrap this podcast up ryan with your Rocky's viewing experience you took in I know yesterday you took in a 13 to 3 loss Uh, what was your other game attendant? Did you get a W did you get? It's a great question, Kyle, and I'd love to answer that for you. Actually, both the games, um, the opposing team scored 13 runs. The first game was with the Guardians, uh, formerly, uh, known as something culturally, uh, inappropriate that everybody was still wearing their jersey of. Uh, and I did the same thing that I do when North Dakota comes to town in DU and say, who are the Fighting Sioux? I don't know that team. Who are you guys cheering for? Are you Guardians fans? Oh, that's weird. Do you not like the Guardians? Is that from that one movie, Major League? You guys are big Charlie Sheen guys? Yeah. So, he, uh, No, we, we lost that game 13 to 7, uh, and we had my, my good friend Brian, his family has had season tickets since the inception of the Rockies and we had very good seats. And I spent most of that game heckling Chris Bryant, um, about his contract and his lack of playing. And he did hit the he did hit a home run and then immediately made an error that gave up two runs So and then I don't think he's actually played since so maybe I actually really did hurt his feelings And I did if I I don't think they can put hurt feelings on the aisle report, but I think in this case they would He's just so feeling up to it today. Yeah, I Honestly, there was a guy saying some really mean things to Chris. All right And and then I went to a Reds game The Reds won 13 3. Uh, the Rockies put up less of a fight here. Um, I stayed for the entirety of both games. Um, And, I can tell you, uh, I guess I saw both Ohio teams, right? Cleveland and Cincinnati. Uh, And I don't know why you would root for either of those teams. Uh, I mean, I'm barely a Rockies fan at this point, but I'm from Colorado and that's like, you know, it's something, uh, if you're from Ohio. If you're from Ohio, you should stay your ass at home when these teams come to town. Cause, actually, you know what, whatever, come to Coors Field, it's a beautiful park. Okay, break it down for us here. What, uh, how would you rate, did you sample any, uh, hot dogs? Did you get any food? So you can bring food in to Coors Field, which is an underrated part of the experience. Uh, so Brian and I picked up Uh, yeah. Brian and I picked up Is this a new thing? I don't know, dude. It was new to me. Uh, Yeah. I picked up two polo sausages outside of the stadium. Uh, and brought those MFers right in. How are those? They're good. Wow, fantastic. Dude, it always smells so good when we're leaving the Nuggets games. I never had the cash. Those guys got arrested. So, uh, R. I. P. Um, but the, yeah, they were not permitted. So that was tough. Um, they weren't permitted. No, it was wild. The Westford wrote a whole story about it. Thank God. Yeah. I hope we up whoever's officer's salary did that yeoman's work. I, I, it, could you imagine? No hot dogs without a permit. Could you imagine if you and I would have been there when they were arresting them? Oh, I would have never stopped tackling. I never would have stopped tackling these officers. Oh my God, guys, look at these true heroes out here. My God, no one sells a hot dog without a permit here. My, my read on the Rockies is truly that they are, they're the team of our childhood in that they're truly terrible, but the best part about them, in my opinion, is that they're no longer giving us hope until July. They're just terrible from the beginning and we know they're gonna suck and you know It's a statistical anomaly to see a win at a Rockies game Like if you go to the park the odds are really likely that the Rockies are gonna lose And i've been to two games so far and they've lost both of them. So I uh I feel right in line Everything, my chakras are very aligned. The park is beautiful, by the way. They're doing a great job. The Montforts are printing fucking money. Um, yeah, it's great. Everything's great. Nobody's upset. Did you fall in love with any players out there? Was there anyone on the Rockies that over two games you were like, You know what, he sucks, cause the team sucks. But like, he appears to be a little bit pissed that we're getting our ass beat. Or like, he really, What's wrong? You did something that just made you fall in love a little. No. It doesn't feel like there's that. No. Producer Dan, you've watched a lot of Rockies. You're gonna go tomorrow. Uh, can you turn your mic on real quick? Are you, do you like any, like, is there a player that you, over the course of the season, you've been watching a fair amount? I like Tovar. That guy we signed. Ezekiel's fine. Yeah. Ezekiel's fine. I like a lot of the guys, but like, I just kind of have to get traded to teams that they can do stuff on, like. Nah. They should all be like, utility players on better teams. My favorite has always been Nolan Jones because I can bet on him to strike out on him to strike out And He'll always be my favorite rocky of this year but Knee injury pretty difficult tough to come back from Yeah, uh, all right well We will be back next week the we'll see if courtland sutton Has reported, uh, to the Broncos training camp. We'll have, uh, some finals going on, so we'll break down some actual basketball there. And, uh, to do some research on the Dolphins. I'm gonna pretend like you didn't say that. Alright, that's a hurtful word. Alright, we don't say that. Anyway. Thank you for listening. Please rate and subscribe, share with your friends, like five stars, five stars, local, local media, baby. We're, we're going to give you our honest breakdown of it. And we appreciate the report cards, by the way, that that's been cool to read through from people. Um, so we appreciate that. Dan posted those. If you haven't seen them yet, check them out. Um, if you missed last week's episode, we gave each organization. A, uh, ownership coaching and a roster grade and kind of broke it down. Um, it was more varied than I thought it was gonna be, so it was fun to do. And, uh, yeah, definitely check those out and give us any feedback you have. We'd love to, love to hear that stuff. Um, alright, Ryan, anything else for the good people? Yeah, uh, always make sure that any bar you go to has a vowel in it. Indeed. Well, we'll talk to you next week. Bye. Bye. Lucifer Brothers is a Crab Shell Media Podcast.