Bowser is back! Ha ha! Bowser! Bowser! Everyone calm down! The Super Mario Brothers can take care of the kingdom. Let's go! This April, Toad pack our things. The galaxy is waiting. Who is this? Special! So some cool dinosaur just shows up and he's now part of the group. Cool. The Super Mario Galaxy Movie in cinemas now. ESPN is the home of the women's final four tomorrow night. Highlighted by all four one seeds, Joyce Edwards in South Carolina, square off against A.Z. Budd, Sarah Strong and Yukon. Seven Eastern, then Madison Booker in Texas will take on Lauren Betts in UCLA. Our final four pregame special from Phoenix begins at Six Eastern. We'll also have a special courtside presentation of both games on ESPN 2 and on the app. To the NBA now, Victor Wimbenyama tied a season high. 41 points and snatched 18 rebounds as the Spurs extended their winning streak to 10 with a 127-113 victory over the depleted Warriors. San Antonio sits two games behind the Thunder with six to play. The Spurs also hold the tiebreaker thanks to a four one head to head record. The Spurs are 26-2 in their last 28 games, marking the best record in a 28 game span in franchise history. That is the best record in the NBA during that span as well. Wemby talked about the Spurs lack of playoff experience on SVP last night. Here it is. Yeah, we don't have experience, right? Screw it. I mean, that's all we got. We're not going to play any different wages because it is this way. I mean, we're still going to play 100% and go to try to win this championship. Screw it. Screw it. I mean, Wendy's basically talking to you. You're the one over here saying, hold on, everyone. The Spurs don't have any experience in the postseason. Is he changing your mind, Victor Webinyama? I mean, this is the thing. The Spurs are in a total honeymoon run right now. They live in a largely expectation-free zone. They're a great finish to the regular season. Obviously, it makes them a serious contender to win. But if they don't win the championship this year, no one's going to call them a failure or get on them. They're all kids. We'll leave Stephen A. and Perk and everybody for challenging Victor Webinyama. Challenging Victor Webinyama and questioning his legacy for the next two or three years if he hasn't won three straight titles. This is an opportunity to do it for the first time. This is Final Four this weekend. Shay, I was looking. You know how many freshmen have won most outstanding player of the NCAA tournament in the last 40 years? One, I think. Between Purvis Ellison and 86, like three. Three. It's been like three. I was dancing on Duke's grave over the last couple of days and I ain't stopping them. But we saw those things on social media listing all of those first-round draft picks that Duke has had in the last, you know, 10 years and yet they haven't won a national title. I don't know why because they're all freshmen. You don't win with young players in basketball. You win with experience. So when we say that we're not sure the Spurs are going to win because they haven't had experience, I can't necessarily quantify why they won't win. Will it be because they go shooting cold? Will it be because they have a clutch game and they don't get it done? I don't know. Maybe they can. And when Victor says screw it, he's like, we don't care. Like we're just going to go for it. And I like that. But there's a reason why people who are old and gray, like I'm getting to, say that we're not sure that a team can win without experience because basketball has taught us that typically when you go through a championship run, whether you're trying to win six games in the NCAA tournament or you're trying to win 16 games over two months in the NBA, that experience really matters. We can't always, we don't always know how it matters, but it matters. There's a reason why. So I will sit here and say, I don't expect the Spurs to do it, but I wouldn't try to tell you that they can't. I just, I just been around too long. You know, the funny part about people like Brian Wintour's, you know, he sits up there and he says something because he's very articulate, obviously, and he covers the league backwards and forwards. He knows it just as well as anybody, you know, but we've been in that seat before too. I've been doing this for over 30 years. And I love how Wendy talks about me and Perk and what we'll do about Wimby if he doesn't win three years in a row, but like Wendy's some innocent bystander that's going to have nothing to do with the coverage, Shay. He's going to have nothing to do with the coverage. He's just going to sit around and watch us talk, but he ain't going to be the one talking, dissecting and highlighting who's done what, what they haven't done, how folks didn't step up to the challenge. Luca Donchich is one of the all world players in the NBA. Let me tell you something, Shay Cornette. You would be hard pressed to find anybody that was more critical of Luca Donchich when the Dallas Mavericks went to the finals than Brian Wintour. Nobody ate up Luca more than him. I was, I was the epitome of Gandhi compared to Brian Wintour when it came to Luca Donchich performing in the NBA finals. Wendy was all over him. So y'all can go ahead and buy that and believe Wendy the nice guy is he dissects like a surgeon just picking your part. You know, the way that he does acting like he just going to be some innocent bystander and the bad guys, Stephen A. and Perk, we're going to be all over. Trust me, just listen to Wendy with the smile, you know, with the tie, you know, with the non-assuming person. Just listen to what he says and you'll find yourself going, damn, that's really harsh. Watch, just wait for it. It's coming. Just wait for it. Let me say this about the Spurs. When you got a seven foot five dude that's literally intimidating most of the league, defensively, because you don't even want to go inside against this brother. That's problematic. But I do agree with you. Experience ultimately rules the day because you're talking about a best of seven series. You're not talking about one office and you go against them a particular night and then you see them a month later or anything like that. It's a best four or seven. And when folks get to game plan for you and against you and you got to go through all of that, that definitely is a significant thing that can't be ignored. And I think that we all have to pay attention to that when it comes to the Spurs. But I would also say this, De'Aaron Fox is not a baby. Harrison Barnes is a champion. He's not a baby. They do have some experience on the squad that can help you. It's not like these are cats like Harrison Barnes can give you 15 to 18. De'Aaron Fox can explode at any given moment for 30 or 40. We've seen him do it. We know this brother's a scoring point guard when he wants to be. And so I look at the San Antonio Spurs as a very big time formidable threat. I think they're the number one threat to the Oklahoma City Thunder. We know they beat an OKC four out of the five times they faced them. But I also look at a team like the Boston Celtics and the Detroit Pistons and how physical they can get. How they battle. And I look at it from that standpoint and I don't see the Spurs closing the deal. I don't see this as the year when they're winning the championship. I think Wimby will win several championships. I just don't know if this year will be the year Kendrick Perkins is picked to win it all. I haven't. I'm still on that OKC bandwagon because of Shay Butter. I just think he's this that special. But I will say that I think experience is going to come down. It's going to come down to experience. It does matter in the sport of basketball. Wendy is absolutely right about that. And I think it will plague the San Antonio Spurs when things get really, really tight and deep. They just bet. One thing I will say is this though. They what can make this season a failure after the season they had they can't go to go and lose in the first round. They can't lose to whoever the eventual seventh seed is. That better not happen. They can't do that. Now if you lose in the second round in a seven game series to the Lakers if you lose in the conference finals to OKC. Or something like that. That's different. But you damn sure better not lose in the first round. That would make this season a failure. We don't expect that from San Antonio. Yeah. That's what I was going to ask you. Like I think it would be shocking regardless of their lack of experience if they went out lost in the first round. Maybe it would be equally as shocking if they went out and won the championship. What validates a good season for the Spurs at this point. Stephen. Why don't you answer before I go back. Seven games. I think if you lost the seven game series in the conference semi finals anything a deep run to the conference semi finals or the conference finals to me qualifies as success. Anything less getting bounced out in the first round getting taken out in four or five in the second round. I don't think we expect that from the San Antonio Spurs. I think that would do qualifies a disappointment. Wendy go ahead. Let me just point something out. They haven't lost four games. I think they've lost four games since January 29. I just said they've lost four games since January 29. And so you're asking about somebody beating them four times in seven. Yeah. If they lost in the first round anybody that would be a disaster because they haven't lost four times in two and a half. OK. So let's start with that. I don't think this is such a free roll for them. I don't like every team every postseason is an adventure in a certain respect. It's one of the things that I love watching especially when I don't have skin in the game. I don't have a team. I can watch the adventure and the Spurs are at the beginning of their adventure. And this this was formed for me Shay by covering LeBron's adventures his adventuring Cleveland the first time around and then Miami and then back to Cleveland and then LA. And then I I've picked up other teams along the way and followed their adventures. And so I I have a feel for the arc of how it goes. And I don't mean to you know be be weird about this. But like there's a there's this thing that happens with these teams and it's exciting with the Spurs because they're at the beginning of their adventure. There will be a period. I don't know if it'll be your two or your three or your seven where there will be adversity and they will have to fight through it. And maybe the adversity will come in year one. But they're at the beginning of the adventure. They have already validated themselves as contenders. So that doesn't mean that they can't think they can get away with doing nothing. Of course we have expectations. But I am just enjoying the Spurs and Victor at the beginning of the adventure that he can come on with Scott Van Pelt after a game in April where they blow away a team that's you know not even trying that the Warriors you know spiked last night's game. And he can say screw it. And I deeply care about the NBA. Other teams can't say that. You know you can't have Luca Donciccian and say screw it. What does it matter. He lives in a different part of his adventure. Just enjoy the Spurs at the beginning of this adventure. And I say that to their fans and the players too because it won't always have be this carefree. Well you and I think slightly differently in that regard. Part of enjoying an adventure is fantasizing about where it will take you. True. And if you you know if like for example Wendy when what if I sat right here Shae Wendy and I looked y'all dead in the face and said OK. Santa on this first home in the first round. Let's say for example we knew beyond a shadow of a doubt that this season was ended in April. Suddenly it's not as thrilling to watch them right now. It's not as enjoyable because you know they go on home early. Part of the enjoyment is the fantasy. It's the fantasizing about what you're going to do. What you because of the potential that you're showcasing. That's why we look at the Lakers right now. That's why we're looking at LeBron James playing the way that he's playing and we're seeing Luca and we're seeing a arm. We're like well wait a minute now we thought that the Lakers just suck defensively and you know they just going to be home in the first round. That's not what we see right now. Wait a minute now. Dinks could get very very interesting. We're looking at a team like Denver with Jamal Murray dropping 10-3s last night and knowing that Yolkic ain't been himself. We know that he is going to ascend because we know how great he is. He's just been battling injuries while he's been playing. We're like wait a minute now it's about to get very very interesting. We're looking at Boston. You know we say that Cleveland don't play defensively but we know what they can do offensively. Can you make it interesting against Detroit. How Detroit going to respond to that. New York Knicks took Boston out last year. What's Boston going to do about that. They're vengeance. They've got vengeance on their mind. They're on a retribution trail. This is what's going on. You see all of this stuff and it allows you to enjoy the season. That's why I religiously say to everybody I enjoy it more than most because I love soap operas. See if you watch General Hospital. Sonny Carinthos been shot stabbed and everything. You watch the rest of this. Victor Newman's been pushed down the stairs stabbed and everything. They're going to live. Who doesn't know that. They're the stars of the show. But it doesn't stop you from watching it day to day week to week because it's about the story. I keep telling y'all that. Watch soap operas. You'll appreciate sports even more. It works. The NBA is the best soap operas. I don't remember what's your name again. Brick. Civilis is for the mob. He's working with the mob. His character ain't dying either. I just want you to know. I don't know if you've heard. That's true. Don't give away the storyline now. Speaking of soap operas. Luka vs. Shay tonight. What would the Lakers prove by knocking off the defending jams? We got to take that you won't see coming. Then after Cass impressive triple double last night. Is he proving he may be more important to the next success than perhaps Jalen Brunson? Talk about the next next. We had a killer amongst us. Murder at the U. Listen now. We're not trying to approach. We got to figure it out. Three tough ones. We got another one tomorrow. That's a must win for us. Josh Hart's message was received. The Knicks snapped their three game losing streak last night with a 1-30-1-19 win over the Grizzlies. Carly Anthony Towns led the way with a 20 point triple double. While OG Ananobe added 25 points. McAlbridge is chipped in 24. The Knicks hit third in the Eastern Gala. We have 20 points, 11 boards and 11 dimes recording his fourth triple double of his career and only his second with the Knicks. Now this question. Really think about it too. Who is more important for the Knicks success the remainder of the season? Is it Cap or is it Jalen Brunson? Unenthused, Stephen A. What do you think? I don't even know why you ask me this question. That's the problem. That's the problem right there. Day one. Who were they playing last night? The Grizzlies. What used to be the Memphis Grizzlies. Not much from left. Team, damn they're losing on purpose. If not literally. Please. The ship hasn't been steered in the right direction. Let's not get out of hand here. The New York Knicks haven't beaten a team with a winning record in nearly a month. It's been 24 days since they last beat a team with a winning record. That was the Clippers. They are like 10 and up against teams with records below 500. You know, since the All-Star, dating back to the All-Star break. They're four and eight against winning teams. Okay. And they haven't beaten a winning team in the last 24 days. I will say this. McKell Bridges had 24 points last night. Thank God. I'm happy about that. Carl Anthony Towns. Okay. You taking advantage. 20.20 rebounds. 11 rebounds. 11 assists. Big boy. Okay. You playing like a big man. I got that part. OGN and Nobby stepped up. J. LaBretz is out. I got it. Out to ankle soreness. I got it. But the reality is that we're looking at the New York Knicks. You ain't shadow boxing. Okay. You ain't shadow basketball playing. The fact is, is that when you look at the Knicks, you have to look at the Boston Celtics. You have to look at Cleveland. You have to look at Detroit. I'd say you have to look at Atlanta. And you have to say, okay, what you're going to do against those people. That's what this all comes down to. Have you seen anything from the Knicks that make you say that's going to be a positive? Not yet. In terms of who's more important for the Knicks success, the answer to this is easy. It's Jalen Brunson. I know Carl Anthony Towns is needed, but that's assuming you get what we've been getting from Jalen Brunson. He is destroyed as stirs the cup. He is the dude that starts this engine. Everything goes where Jalen Brunson takes you. Because it's not just about his overall points, his production and stuff like that, his efficiency. It's also about his clutch gene. When it's time to close, Jalen Brunson will close for you. And that's a big, big deal. We don't know if we could say that about Kat or anybody else, but we know we could say that about Jalen Brunson. And that's why I say he's more important because he closes. That's what we need. So the Knicks, what this record shows, Shay, is that the Knicks are a good, not great team right now. Maybe they will be a great team in the end. I'm not sure. And I think that's what this season has sort of been unfortunately characterized by. So you look at what's happened with this Knicks season and you say, well, why are they only a good team? Because they've invested so much in this roster and they thought this was going to be the year they were going to win. Why are they? And that's a simple question that doesn't have a clean answer. Because trust me, I'm having a lot of conversations with people about the Knicks trying to figure out what's going on. And it's a number of things. You know, like at the beginning of the season, I was with them in training camp. And they were running this offense where the ball was moving around. Choo, choo, choo, choo, choo. And the concept was going to be that we didn't want Jalen Brunson to have to pound the ball 700 times a game. He led the league in dribbling last year. And I was like, let's not do that and wear him out. And let's make ourselves a little bit more unpredictable in the playoffs. And so he started with the best of intentions. But here we are in April. Shay Brunson's usage rate is higher than ever. It's higher than it even was last year. The ball's in his hands more than ever. The problem with that early offense was that it left Carl Towns a little bit out on the edge. Like they didn't build a structure to take advantage of Towns. And he had to deal with that and grapple with that. And they were basically like, Carl, go rebound and stay out of foul trouble. And he tried to do that. But obviously he was not in the greatest mindset about it. And so even though the offense has gone away from the move the ball around and get Ogien and Obie and McHale Bridges and Josh Hart and other guys' shots, it hasn't gone to Towns. Here again, here we are in April. Towns, he hasn't had this few shots in games since he was a rookie. I mean, here we have Jaylen Brunson last night, not on the game. They were taking care of his ankle. He still only took 12 shots. I mean, he was passing the ball. The ball came to him and he was distributing it and he had 11 assists. And so you're wondering, well, why don't they have him distribute a little bit more? And you look at like their defense, for a big section of the year their defense was top five. And you're like, wow, they've really got their defense into a good place. This last month or so their defense has collapsed down the rankings. So I'm trying to put my finger in the dam, Steve and Ada. How do I wear? How do I do this? And so I don't have a clean answer and I don't think they do either. Now, I love the way that they're constructed. I think that they can make a run, but I'm having a hard time getting a belief in it. Damn it. I don't believe. I love them. I just don't believe. And I don't believe because my eyes tell me not to believe. Now, here's what we have to pay attention to. So I've got numbers up here comparing them to last season undertips to this season with Mike Brown. Jaylen Brunson is averaging basically the same amount of points. But on two more shots per game, his field goal shooting has gone dipped from 49% to 46.5% and his assist have lowered as well. That's not good. When you're averaging less assists and you're shooting a less efficiency level from the field, that is not good news. It's number one. But the most alarming news would be Kat. You're averaging four less minutes a game. You're averaging three less shots a game. You're averaging four less points a game and your three point shooting is dipped by 5%. So I'm looking at my two primary offensive guys on a team that knew that if you went away from Timbs to Mike Brown, you were going to sacrifice something defensively because Timbs is brilliant defensively. No doubt about that. He's considered just a genius on the defensive side of the ball when it comes to coaching. All right. You knew you were going to suffer there, but you were supposed to elevate offensively and your two primary dudes haven't elevated. They haven't fallen off a cliff or anything like that, but they haven't elevated. So if that's the case, I don't expect to see problems with McKell Bridges offensively. I don't expect to see a sporadic OG Ananobi. I don't expect to see a Josh Hart that's the energizer bunny and the engine for, you know, that stirs the cup for the New York Knicks to some degree. I don't expect to see a drop off with them and have the drop off with Brunson and Carl Anthony Towns. If they're sacrificing something or they're being compromised in any way, it's supposed to be to the benefit of the collective parts around them. That has not been the case. And because that has not been the case, that's why you've got everybody looking at the New York Knicks saying they're a good team, not a great team, and they expected to make it out the first round, but not much else. And this is a team that was in a conference finals last year and was expected to go to the finals this year because the pieces around them had a plethora of injuries. And now none of that is working in their favor. Everybody around them in terms of their primary competition seems to be ascending and the New York Knicks seem to be inching lower and lower and lower on a formidable poll. And I'm not happy about it. So will the narrative be the same a week from tomorrow? The Knicks have to play the Bulls on Friday, then on Monday they go to Atlanta to place the Hawks. So we know if the season ended today, they would face in the postseason. Then next Thursday they have to play at home against the Boston Celtics, the team that is one row ahead of them in terms of the standing in the Eastern Conference. We'll learn a lot in the next 70 years. Based on what I've seen, I expect the Knicks to go one and two in those three games. Based on what I've seen. I'll beat the Bulls. I'm hopeful they'll go two and one. Based on? Based on me being around the NBA for 20-something years, they'll probably go two and three and no. There you go. Alright, coming up, Luca and LeBron are hoping to make a statement against Shay Butter, as Stephen A likes to call him. What would a Lakers win over the Thunder truly mean? We've got a Windy Watch coming. Oh, a Windy Watch. Oh, look out. 9-1-1, where is the emergency? It's the middle of the night in a small town on the Jersey Shore. Someone reports an abandoned car on a bridge. A search gets underway for the missing driver, 19-year-old Sarah Stern. Is it a missing person? Is it a suicide? At this point, nobody knows. Old friendships, buried cash, and a sinister plot that was once pitched as a movie plays out in real life. I'm Juju Chang from 2020 and ABC Audio. Listen now to Bridge of Lies, wherever you get your podcasts. 14 games highlight the ESPN Plus NHL schedule. Tonight, these are the featured matchups. Jack Hughes and the Devils host OV and the Caps at 7.30 Eastern. Then the Mammoth will square off against the Kraken. Both are available on the ESPN app. Coverage drops at the point at 6 o'clock on ESPN 2. The Lakers face two major measuring stick games taken on the reigning champion Thunder twice in five days starting tonight. Both teams led by MVP candidates that are on a tear. Luka Dončić, Shay Gildes, Alexander. This gut-check matchup for the Lakers will be far from just another regular season game. While OKC holds a slim two-game lead over the Spurs, but does not control the tiebreaker against the Spurs. The Lakers are riding a four-game win streak. They are 15-2 since March 1st. That is the second-best win percentage in the NBA during that span. Their opponent tonight, the Thunder, are the only team with a better record in that same span. So what would a win tonight against the Thunder prove for the Lakers, Wendy? Yeah, I'm not even so... I don't even care that much about whether who wins and loses. I just want to see how they handle this situation. They're going into Oklahoma City where the Thunder have been killer in the clutch this year. The Lakers have been the best clutch team in the NBA. I would love to see this game go into clutch time and see how the Lakers handle guarding Shay because that's where the Lakers are challenged, perimeter defense, and no one's been able to handle Shay all season long. And if you get into a playoff series, you know, you're at Lakers' Thunder, which, you know, I don't know if it's going to happen, but it could. That's where it's going to... Rubber's going to meet the road. I want to see it. I want to see how, you know, the Thunder, who are a great defensive team, handle the onslaught of how the Lakers have figured out how to deal with Luca, Reeves and LeBron and energize them and empower them and how they're going to handle Luca, who's on a generational hot streak, who somebody's going to hold Luca to under 40 points. He's not going to score 40 points the rest of his career. Who's going to do it? Is it going to be the Thunder? Are they going to take this challenge on? Because, Stephen A, the Thunder are trying to win these games. You know, there's a whole bunch of games we have in the NBA right now, but one team's not trying to win. Sometimes we've got two teams not trying to win. Both teams are trying to win this game. You know, the Spurs are coming hot and heavy. The Spurs are playing here in L.A. tonight against the Clippers. They're going to play that game for real because they're trying to catch the Thunder. The Thunder know it. They've come out and set it. So, they're going to play absolutely full board of win tonight. Let's see how the Lakers... The Lakers have proven to all of us that they are the number three team in the West. Do we know whether they've proven they can challenge the Spurs or Thunder yet? They're not there, but boy, do they get a wonderful opportunity. Tonight in Oklahoma City, next Tuesday here in Los Angeles, there's no back-to-back issues. Everybody's going to be rested. Hopefully everybody's going to be healthy. Everybody cares about these games. This is a great way to get a measuring stick on where the Lakers are. I can't wait to see how it plays out. I get where you're coming from. I don't disagree. But where there's a twist and turn, you're interested in seeing somebody stop Shay. I'm not worried about that. There ain't nobody stopping Shay Butter. That's not the issue. The issue is watching Oklahoma City's defense against Luka. You going to drive 40 tonight, Luka? You going to put it on them like that? This is Oklahoma City. You'll see they hang their hat on throwing defenders in your direction. So, it's going to be real interesting to see how that pans out. I also want clutch time because I want to see, you know, not just Luka, but the Lakers' offense and how they're going to produce. Because let's call reality, let's face reality. If we're anticipating the Lakers having any success in the postseason, we ain't hanging our hats on their defense saving the day. We're looking at their offense being so prolific, you ain't going to be able to stop them. So, that's something that's very, very important to think about, right? Here's where it gets interesting. Certainly, Oklahoma City wants to win because they want the number one seed. They want to be on their home turf. They want San Antonio to have to come to their house instead of having to go to San Antonio. If indeed you all were to meet in the conference finals, we get that. That's what they're trying to ward off the spurts. The Lakers are interesting because you're the number three seed. You're only a game and a half ahead of Denver. All right? Wendy, if the playoffs were to begin today, the Lakers are the three seed, who's the sixth? Ant-Man in Minnesota. The team that took them out last year. I mean, ran right through him. Okay? Had Rudy Gobiad looking like the second coming of Bill Russell or Karim Abdul-Jabbar. I don't know what the hell it was, but that's how he looked. Okay? What you're going to do this time around? Because Minnesota ain't going to be no easy out. Not with Ant-Man. Not going to play off time. Ant-Man, Julius Randall, Rudy Gobiad. You got size. You got girth. You got Nas-Reed and these cats. You understand? I mean, you can't summarily dismiss Minnesota. So if you're the Los Angeles Lakers, do you want to hold on to the three seed? Or do your mind give it up because you could go against the team as the fourth seed in Houston, who would be the fifth seed. Who's the team devoid of a real point guard and obviously don't perform well in clutch time because they make too many damn mistakes in the fourth quarter, turning over the basketball. That's something that we have to ask. Remember, Lakers have back-to-back games recently against Houston in Houston and beat them both times. So I'm saying to you, do I think that's going to happen? No. I think the Lakers are holding on to the third seed. I think that they go up against Minnesota if it goes down like that. And they'll be like, let's get it on because we want our vengeance ourselves. But we can't summarily dismiss the possibility that the Lakers might prefer the fourth seed and to go against Houston in the first round rather than Minnesota. Let's not act like that's an impossibility. It's not. Well, they may not have a choice with the fourth seed considering what's in front of them here. Wendy, were you going to add something? Go ahead. It's going to be very hard to predict who ends up with the five and the six because it's so tightly packed. But I will say that if I were the Lakers, I would agree. If I had to choose, I would choose Houston. I just don't know if it's going to be in their lap. We will find out. Again, the Lakers have to face the Thunder twice in the next week, couple days or so, so we'll find out who they are here, especially in terms of the Western. 0-2 against the Thunder. 1-3 against San Antonio. Yes, so far this season. But that was before they started locking down defensively. Things have changed there in LA. How about NASA? They launched the Artemis II yesterday. Now here's the question everyone wants to know. Would you go to the moon? There it is. South softball. I was like, what's happening? Would you go to the moon? I mean, this is an obvious answer. Also, the Sun's job was open this past off season. Michigan State head coach Tom Izzo seriously considered it. Was it a mistake for him not to take it? Coach approach next. The UofL Week 2 schedule rolls along on Saturday night at 8 Eastern 5 Pacific on ESPN and the app with the 1-0 storm taken on the King's who are looking for their first ever UofL win. Sunday, an NFL network, the 1-0 stallion square off against the 0-1 gamblers in Houston at 6 Eastern 5 Central. Michigan State basketball head coach Tom Izzo appeared on the Dan Patrick show yesterday and gave a surprising answer on asked whether he would ever make the jump to the NBA. I bet more than a couple job offers in the NBA and looked at one last year with Phoenix, you know, and my former player Matt Ispia. And that was hard. That was a hard thing to turn down because number one, I kind of wanted to go with him. So they offered you the head coaching job. We talked seriously about it. Let's say that. Okay, so kind of sounds like yeah, they basically offered him a job. Was it a mistake for Izzo to pass on the Sun's head coaching job? What do you think I say? Um, no, I don't think it was a mistake because I think that when you've been around for as long as Tom Izzo has, you take a lot of things into consideration. And but number one, primarily as you're happening is you and your family and the decisions that you have to make. He's, you know, trenched in at Michigan State. He's beloved there 31 seasons. They know what a great coach he is. He only has one national championship, but without question, he's somebody that's considered one of the all time greats. And so, you know, to go to the NBA to start anew, that's something that, you know, you can understand somebody at his age might be a bit reluctant to do, even though he's completely turned off and disgusted with what's transpiring in college sports, primarily basketball and football with the NIL, transfer portal and all of that other stuff, which is why none of them, I interviewed Tom Izzo a little over a week ago, Wendy, and obviously none of them were averse to President Trump bringing people up on Capitol Hill to sort of shine a spotlight on what's transpiring in college basketball and how things need to be changed. Me personally, I think a lot of it gets resolved. You just have a collective bargaining negotiation. Let make sure players have representation in that regard from a collective bargaining standpoint and handle it that way. But obviously other people have other ideas in terms of returning college basketball and college football to some degree of what it once was. Having said all of that, I want to take a moment that even though I think that Tom Izzo made the right decision in staying at Michigan State, I got to applaud Matt Eshbier, the owner for the Phoenix Suns. We all know I was all over him a couple of years ago. Last year it was awful, no question about it. Paying coaches not to coach. The situation with Kevin Durant and Bradley Beale and stuff like that, they moved on from both of them. Kevin Durant is happy in Houston. Bradley Beale is where he is and you move on from there. But the point is that they hired Jordan Ott who was a video coordinator something like that under Izzo. He's got ties to Izzo to some degree because Matt Eshbier being a former walk on at Michigan State with the connections that they have with one another. That's why he would consider Izzo himself. But Jordan Ott, I mean he's done a tremendous job. There's no doubt about that. You look at him and the Phoenix Suns. I didn't expect them to be eight, nine games over 500. Ball in the way that they have. I didn't expect Dylan Brooks to have the kind of impact that he's had on the team culturally. We know that Devin Booker is a baller, but I'm really, really far into what I'm seeing from the Phoenix Suns right now. And if I'm going to call it out and blame him for what was going on, I'm damn sure going to give credit where creditors do to Matt Eshbier, who I've spoken to on several occasions this season, just to tell him congratulations with what I've been seeing. Because the Phoenix Suns have been a pleasant surprise and they're sitting in the seventh seed right now in the Western Conference. This made me smile because first off, an immutable fact about basketball is that nobody loves people from Michigan State more than people from Michigan State. That is a family that loves their family. And that's what Matt Eshbier has built there. Brian Gregory, their general manager, former assistant for his own, Jordan Knot, who's done a really good job. The reason that this made me smile, Shay, is that Matt Eshbier and Dan Gilbert, the owner of the Cavs and Matt Eshbier are mortal enemies because they are in the same business from the same part of the world in Michigan. They both went to Michigan State. But here's the thing, I know them a little bit both and their personalities are very different, but they think exactly the same. And I laugh when I hear Matt Eshbier say things to me that Dan Gilbert has said to me 15 years ago. And they both tried to hire Tom Izzo. Tom Izzo, Dan Gilbert, it's been 15 years and Izzo stayed and he's gone to multiple more Final Fours. But Dan Gilbert, I mean at the time, it was like 2010, Stephen, that he offered Tom Izzo $6 million a year, which back then was like a whole new ground for what a head coach would be paid. And Izzo came to Cleveland and Ford and all this stuff. And here, 15 years later, Matt Eshbier is like, boy, it would be great to get coaches out here. So I just love the whole dynamic there. The average person doesn't care, but I just love that. And going with Michigan State folks has been working for Matt Eshbier. So I'm fine with it. I just love that he tried to do it. And by the way, I got like Bill Self. Bill Self has been offered multiple head coaching jobs in the NBA. Mike Shashevsky, people came at him for years trying to hire him away from him. Lakers too. You're an elite college coach. Oh, multiple teams tried to get Shashevsky. Only Mike Shashevsky knows how many teams tried to hire him. So maybe it was like 12, 15 over the years. So this is a long term thing. But Izzo has seemed to do very well just staying right there at Michigan State. Yeah. Matine Cleves, Charlie Bell, they were both on that championship team with Izzo at Michigan State. They're both on the staff there in Phoenix. It's like East Lansing Desert. East Lansing Hot. You know what they call it? They call it West, they call Phoenix West Lansing. That's more clever than East Lansing Devison Desert. I should have known better. All right, coming up on First Take, the time has arrived. With the Artemis II launching, we finally get to find out. Steven A., would you go to the moon? Don't answer now. Save it for after the break. A routine Florida vs. Stetson softball game suddenly turned historic last night. Played pause as fans and players looked up to watch Artemis II launch from Kennedy Space Center. The first human mission to deep sped since 1972. Spaceship in the air. Okay, the launch. I watched it with my kids. Would you go to the moon? Wendy, would you go to the moon? Hell no. I want to go Hawaii. And you're not letting me, so you're close. They've been working on this for a decade. I respect so much the astronauts who are doing this. And I look forward to all the things that they discover. I'm cool right here. And if I'm going to travel, I'll travel with Steven A. That's the way to go, Shay. That's the way to go. I don't need the rocket. I say you want to go to the moon? Let me tell you something. Hell no. Never. I have no desire to do it. Listen, I'm getting sick of that. You know what? Human beings, we got to check ourselves. Listen, I ain't interested in scuba diving. I ain't no damn fish. I ain't Aquaman. I wish I was Aquaman. That ain't me. I ain't interested in skydiving. I'm not a bird. It's hard enough for me to get into playing. It's hard enough for me to get on Delta or America or something like that. Space shuttle to the moon. What the hell is going to be up there? This is the other thing that's absolutely positive. That's funny. That's funny right there. But let me tell you this to y'all. You know what really is bothering me about a lot of human beings? I'm watching some stuff the other day and then I'm on real time with Bill Maugh and HBO the other day and they're talking about aliens and people are talking about how this is real. This is real stuff, right? And they're acting so surprised. I'm like, yo, y'all, it's a big universe. You don't think there's other creatures out there? I don't know who you are. I don't know where you are. I saw the movie Independence Day. Just like I saw Transformers. I don't rule out any of that stuff. None of it. I don't underestimate it. I don't shove it aside. The Earth is one planet. You know how many galaxies in the galaxy? You know how much stuff is out there? I don't know if we'd go someplace else. It ain't for me. The Lord put me on Earth for a reason. If he wanted me somewhere else, he'd have me somewhere else. I mean, we got too many people in this world going like this. Wow, that's peculiar. I'd like to see it. No! Stop being so damn curious sometimes. It ain't meant for you. It ain't meant for you. Nah, I ain't going no damn move. You know what he likes from Independence Day, Shay? He likes the President's speech. That's his favorite part of Independence Day. He doesn't like the rock. Actually, what I liked most in that movie was the extraordinary acting of Will Smith and everything plus the acting about Vivica Fox. That's what I liked about Independence Day. I'm just saying. I get nauseous going to New York every day in a car. I can't even imagine a rocket, okay? Bumpy all the way up. No thanks. No way in hell. I'm out. We can't even eat. We can't even eat up this. Plus, I'm always scared. All that fine stuff like that. I'm glad they made it. You hear this toilet was malfunctioning already? No, thank you. There it is. I'm the only one of the saps. Stop being so damn curious, people. Stop being so damn curious. Well, Stephen A. gets the highest seat.
