 What's the word y'all? When the NBA announced the 2022-2023 schedule, they dropped something in there that in the middle of January, we're gonna try this thing called NBA Rivals Week. On national TV from Tuesday to Saturday, we're gonna put some of the best rivalries in basketball on display for the whole world to see. I was skeptical because I've been on this channel saying there's not a lot of rivalries left in basketball, but I gotta get credit where it's due. From Tuesday from the very first game to the very last game, every one of those games were a banger for their own different reasons. Every one of those games were a banger, so I gotta give a big thumbs up to the NBA for NBA Rivals Week. I hope we see it again next year. I'm be honest, if they do drop it again next year, it's not gonna be as entertaining as this was, but I loved it. But I gave them some points, and now I gotta take some of those points away, man. I gotta take them away because that very last game on full display for the entire world to see you saw one of the biggest problems in the NBA. The longest rivalry in the NBA, Boston, Celtics, L.A. Lakers, even though as of recently they ain't really seen each other in the finals or nothing, whatever. It's the oldest rivalry from Magic and Bird to this and that, to this and that. National TV last game of the day. The last previous games that were on STV were bangers, the best runners in the league going head-to-head, and then we got the New York matchup, whatever. Celtics, Lakers entertaining, man. We got 38-year-old LeBron James still doing ridiculous stuff. The Celtics are on the three-game loser streak. They're a missing former defensive player of the year, and Marcus Smart and Robert Williams doesn't suit up. And this game is close. It's back and forth, back and forth. Patrick Beverly hit two threes and then got a tip dunk. All right, come on out of nowhere. Patrick Beverly showed off the bunnies. And then J. LeBron gets a clutch offensive rebound. He gets fouled on the end one. We got a tie game, 105-105, Lakers ball. And when four seconds ago, LeBron James does the thing that people been asking Bron to do forever. Just go straight to the basket. Make them foul you. Well, he did it and they didn't blow the whistle. They didn't blow the whistle. LeBron threw the biggest tantrum I've ever seen of his life. J.R. Smith blew a game one of an NBA finals where he had 50 points and he didn't react and the NBA finals like he did on this random play in this random game. That's how much it meant to him. I think part of it was like he was so dead tired. I mean, he already had X amount of points and doing everything he could to win this game. And he did the thing that you want him to do. He went to the basket. He makes that basket if they don't foul him, but they foul him and they don't get the call. And about that time, the Boston Celtics and J. LeBron and the overtime go crazy, but they missed a huge, huge call and it kind of ruined the vibes for anybody that wasn't rooting for the Boston Celtics. But even then, people are asking, Kenny, why don't you make a whole video about the officiating, the officiating is so bad in the sport? I don't have a solution or anything I could say on this channel that can really improve the thing. I was trying to figure out what sport it is. I remember recently reading an article that in some sport, when the referee does a poor job, he gets suspended. But the NBA can't really do that because there's only X amount of referees that they trust to have that real, I don't know, fine detail. And then they're not perfect as you saw today. As you see every single day. But when I watch college basketball, I can see that there's a skill gap between the NBA refs and the college basketball refs. So they're probably thinking, we can't suspend this dude for missing some calls because if we do, then now we gotta promote this dude and this dude ain't nearly as good as that dude, even though that dude missed some calls. There's no real solution. But we've seen multiple times this season, not just this game on national TV where a missed call, a bad call at the end of the game has cost a team a win and it cost the Lakers this one because let's be real, Braun is making at least one of those two with zero seconds on the clock. They walk out of here with a win and they're on the win streak and they go into their next game and they just beat one of the best teams of basketball. I can't say anything more than that until the very last second of the regulation. This is a fire ass game though. I'm going to go to the top of the day. Early, early game, Jorlin B versus Nikola Jokic. A lot of people me include to have them one and two in the MVP ladder. And y'all know Jorlin B loves to go against Nikola Jokic because this is this opportunity to try to showcase to the world why he should be in these conversations. It shouldn't be Nikola Jokic, Nikola Jokic, Nikola Jokic on top of the world when it comes to the best centers of basketball. And Jorlin B put on a full display after a first quarter, first in the half corner, a quarter and a half of what seemed like Nikola Jokic clamping up, Jorlin B took it extremely personal and really took it at Nikola Jokic for three and a half quarters and steered the comeback on one of the best teams in basketball. And it's unfortunate that they live and they play in different conferences because at the very best, we only see this two times a year. And that's the very best because you know, you're prone to get an injury here. You're prone to get somebody sitting out. Both of these teams were healthy. Like an hour before tip office at Bruce Brown, Jamal Murray, Michael Porter Jr. and Nikola Jokic were active. I'm like, let's get it. Let's get it. This is the perfect matchup. I ended up living up to the hype, man. Two of the best centers of basketball going head to head in Jorlin B won this, oh man. And I wonder how much a singular game matters. It might be forgotten by the time the voting comes around in April. But I think it's very interesting because I don't know if it was the last time they played against each other or the time before that. Jorlin B had a really good game against Jokic too. But Jokic basically hit a game when he hit a shot where like three seconds to go to win the game, you know what I'm saying? So even though Jorlin B had the maybe the better counter stats game, Nikola Jokic hit the game winning so you get him in a nod. And now it was Jorlin B don't own everything. The better stats, the class performance, backside step three to close out the game. He had everything. So he looked amazing today. And again, I wonder what that does to the MVP ladder. Again, it's only one game out of 82, but it was head to head between the top two centers and ball and that was amazing. Other rival weak games that were absolutely incredible. We did get the New York versus New York thing. Cary Irvin took over the fourth quarter. He continues to be great. Nikolaus Claxton again, just doing his thing. But I want to go all the way back. I want to go back to Tuesday, January 24th. We on the 28th as I'm recording this video. The first game of rival week was Boston Celtics Miami. As we know, they've matched up against each other in the playoffs a few times. Timmy Butler took a shot at the end of game. Was that game seven? That was game seven, right? Jimmy Butler took a shot. He missed it and boom, the Boston Celtics went on to the NBA Finals, end up losing to the Golden State Warriors. But is this a real rivalry? I don't know. There's a little bit going on. That was why I was skeptical, by the way, because again, some of the rivals that were, that took place, I don't even know if they're really considered rivals, but regardless, in this one, we saw a huge bam out of bio game where he had 30 and 15 hidden shots, closing things out in the game with no Jimmy Butler against the Boston Celtics. Who also is missing Jalen Brown? Mark is smart. I think Al Horford didn't play in this one. So they were handicapped as well for the show, but we did see Bam take over game and as a big Bam guy that was entertaining. Same night, we saw Lakers versus Clippers. Of course, this a rivalry. Who the Kings of LA? You know, Kora said it was him. LeBron is nicknamed the King. LeBron put up 46, 7 to 7. They lost. They lost. But LeBron put up 46. And any time LeBron is having a great game, it's must-see-tea for me personally. Next, we had net 76ers. We talked about this in a previous video. Ben Simmons returning to Philly, finding Ludwig against Jordan B. Go watch that video if you want to recap it at. Grizzly's Warriors is when Steph Curry got ejected for throwing his mouthpiece because Jordan Poole took an ill-evised shot. Like every game I'm mentioning right now is part of rival week. All of them and all of them so far has an argument. For them being great games. Again, the LeBron versus Clippers one wasn't a great game but LeBron almost had 50, you know? Then we get nicks versus Celtics, right? This game goes to overtime where everybody that's a sports better in the world rejoiced when RJ Barrett hit that corner three because everybody had RJ Barrett plus 15 and a half point plus 15 points. He hit it. They go to OT. Jaylen Brunster gets the big block to end the game. And Julius Randall had 37. Again, another banger like they won't stop. And even the late game in this one had potential to be ass. Luka Dodgers get injured three minutes of the game. I'm like, oh, okay, this about to be a snorfest. Absolutely not. Swiss Identity puts on a Luka impersonation. He ended up with 36. And he ended up beating the Phoenix Sun. I won't say single-handedly because it takes a team to win a basketball game. But his 36 was ridiculous in this game versus the Phoenix Suns. Also, the point guard has been, you know, steering his head a little bit as of Reese. You know, it's a big Chris Paul fan. I love to see that. They lost this game, but he had 22, 10, 6. He shot it efficiently, you know what I'm saying? Timberwolves Grizzlies maybe not as fun as the other ones because the Grizzlies kind of did their thing with them from very early on. And I don't think they, I don't think the Memphis Grizzlies led anything other than the first basket of the game. So maybe not as entertaining as the other ones. But hey, the Minnesota, the Minnesota Timberwolves who went in basketball games, y'all, they have one of the best records in basketball since the turn of the calendar year. I know it's going under the radar because, well, they started off so bad, but they put it together. The Ezra Rust, they showed a graphic in today's video. He's shooting like 50% from three on like six attempts per game. I think he said for a month, for full month. He's blazing hot right now and they're winning games. Anthony Albers deserves a lot of love, man. A lot of love. I don't think he's missed the game this season. He's been as consistent as anything. Then we got Warriors Raptors, which I don't even know if I want to call this a rivalry because I mean, they went against each other in the finals, but like how many people from that finals team is still around? Pascal and Freddie. OG didn't even play. He was injured there. So it's like two people from the previous regime when they ended up in the finals. This game wasn't not the two crazy. And then again, the three games today. So I don't know if the NBA plans don't bring it back rivalry, but I mean, I hope that they do because every single one of those games was fire. We probably might go get the same results, but I'm happy, you know what I'm saying? And I'm a big, big guy, a big believer in change and experiments in this sport. I mean, why not? You know why not? If we don't like it and it doesn't work, just don't do it after you try it. Everybody thought that the playing game was going to be this gimmick. It's not going to be fun. The playing game is the reason, while some of our teams are just ass, it won't decide to sell, but also the reason why every team believes they have a chance, which also means that every single night you don't know exactly what's going to happen. You know what I'm saying? The 13th seed in previous years is like, Hey, we've got to get a lottery pick. The 13th seed now believe that they got a chance to not make the playoffs, but potentially win it all because of the playing game. I'm in a huge minority. Anybody I talk to about the in season tournament stuff, they always say terrible, even LeBron was like, nah, the players are probably like, nah, I think it in season tournament can be fun. I mean, it has to, I have to see the rules and stuff like, I think it can be really, really fun, but that's a conversation for another day. Let me know what you thought about rival Reek. Was the LeBron James Ms. Fowle the most egregious miss call you've ever seen? I can see an argument.