 What's the word y'all? Man, oh man, it feels good to be home. If you didn't know, I went to Summer League for the first couple of days. It was fire, came home for like a day, then went to DreamCon down in Texas. Shout out to RDC for inviting the brother. It was fire, but I'm finally home and ready to create content. The only problem is, we're basically in the dead of the off season now. All the big time signings are over. Summer League is done. Shout out to the Portland Trailblaze for getting that ring legitimately, getting the ring. Deondra Aiden just got matched. I guess Donovan Mitchell could get traded in the next couple of weeks or so, but other than that, we're in the dead of the off season. So today we're trying something completely different. Now y'all know me. I am not, and I repeat, I am not the take police, but today I might be. Usually I don't really care of what other people believe when it comes to the game of basketball because at the end of the day, I am team enjoy basketball if you know you know. So someone's bad take doesn't normally affect me, but I was on my flight home from Texas, strolling through Twitter, and this crossed my timeline and I was like, I just wanna react to it. No, it's probably not the worst take of all time, but I've just seen, and I guess the pot has boiled over for me when it comes to bad things said about Nikola Jokic, and this one just so happened to be on the timeline. So I wanna say to this guy, if somehow he comes across this video, this is not a shot at you at the end of the day. Again, we are just talking basketball, and I want y'all at home to realize that as well. Do not go out there and go crazy on this dude because you might disagree with his NBA opinions. It is just opinion-based, but Jokic at this point has become one of the most disrespected players, which is weird to say, because now he has two MVP's. It seems like he's disrespected by a portion of the media. So you get the Nick Wright to the world saying he was the worst MVP winner in recent history, and now this guy had a take on Nikola Jokic that 97% of it I disagree with, so let's go ahead and talk about it. I'll put the link in the description to this tweet so nobody can say anything was taken out of context. This is an entire seven-minute segment that we will be reacting to. Of course, the whole seven-minute sign in again. Go watch the entire tweet, but I'm gonna try my best to add the most important parts and talk about the things that bro's talking about. So we start off talking about a tweet from Tommy Beard that says that over the last 43 NBA Finals, one of these nine players are added. We got like LeBron, we got MJ, Steph Curry. We got some of the greatest of all time legitimately. In the last 40 years, these nine players have dominated the league so that they are in the Finals all the time. Keep that in mind. That's the beginning of this argument against Nikola Jokic. I think he's had an incredible run. I think he's done something that doesn't get enough credit when talking about his game. So he starts off by doing something that I am guilty of as well. Before I'm about to say something negative about a player, I always start off with some of the positives because it lessens the blow in a sense, right? So the people aren't spamming you on Twitter when you say something negative, but if you say something positive beforehand, maybe they won't pay attention to it. So I'm guilty of this as well. So I'm not even knocking bro for saying this, but he talks about the availability of Nikola Jokic has been amazing throughout the course of his career, which is facts. You can't say that about every player nowadays. That's true. Do I think he's one of those guys on the list or I think he's one of the all time greats? No, I don't. And I can stand by that and it's okay. I'm okay with that. He still has a lot more of his legacy to write, of course, I just don't think it's enough for him to be the best player on the championship team. We'll stop right there. It is not enough for him to be a championship player on an NBA team. And if you think about the original tweet that he referred to, if you think about the original tweet that he referred to, that there's some basis to that. If you are telling me in the last 40 years, there's been nine players that have dominated the league. As Nikola Jokic has been that good of a player when you match up against Steph Curry, you match up against LeBron James and Magic Johnson, maybe not so much, but it's the things that happen after this, things that he says after this that confuses me. Now, remember this tweet. This is where it all stems from. Tommy Beers tweet that saying 41 of the past 43 NBA final series have featured one of these nine players, just that they were associated within the series. Not that they've won every championship because I think that is a huge, huge distinction. For example, Steph Curry. Yes, he's been in a lot of finals, but he did lose one to Kawhi Leonard. Kawhi Leonard was the best player on the championship team. LeBron James lost one to Dirk. Dirk was the best player on the championship team. Kobe lost one to Ben Wallace, Rip Hamilton and all of these players. Like these are teams that have won championships. Yes, you need an all-time great to get there, but I think it's a little bit disingenuous to look at this nine players and say, hey, Jokic can't win a championship because he's not there. When we see people that aren't there actually win it. That's all I'm saying. We can talk with some nuance and some depth and we can analyze a player. Let's do it. Let's analyze. I haven't, they got into that next level. Yeah, it's been some injuries for some. No, no, no, no. See, this is where things get interesting. Let's go back. Let's listen to his exact words on this. Next level. Yeah, it's been some injuries for some key players around him. Yes, there's been some injuries from some key players. Here's the payroll for the Denver Nuggets. The payroll. How many games have we seen between Jamal Murray and Michael Porter Jr. this season? Remember, this right here is what? $60 million of guaranteed money from this season. And what did we get? How many games from Michael Porter Jr.? Nine. How many games from Jamal Murray? Zero. It's been some key injuries? No, that's the understatement of the century. These are supposed to be the two and three to Jokic and they haven't played. Michael Porter Jr. was a max player. Don't forget how good Michael Porter Jr. was the year that led them to give him that money. He was very, very good at the age of 22. Not some key injuries. That's that's what it's way more than some key injuries. That's all I'm saying. You lost the game seven at home in the playoffs to Portland. Yeah, a cheap shot. Somebody in the back, you get swept in the suns in four and you get ejected from a playoff game. Like these are things that happen and we can talk about. It doesn't take away from his greatness. And all of that is true, right? They did lose a game seven to basically CJ McCullum and Dame that led them to go to the conference finals. He has got ejected from a playoff game because he let the emotions get the better of him. He did push Marquis Morris. He is very far from a perfect player. But I can't say right now that he cannot be the best player on the championship team, but in his prime, which is the last couple of years, he hasn't even had an healthy version of the roster that they built for him. When you look at that list from Tommy to have to really win in the NBA, you have to have an all-time great player. Yes, you do. Coli Leonard, two-time finals MVP. Who was it on your list, by the way? He's an all-time great player. And I think Yolkich is just a notch below. You'd rather have Yolkich as your number two. Let's go. Also, it's 22. He's been a two-time MVP. It's Yolkich, man. It's Yolkich. It's Yolkich. It's like the Yanis Ata de Kumpo thing. You have to, we have to learn how to pronounce this. It's not even a hard name. Yanis, I excused everybody who's late to the party. That was 13 syllables. Yolkich is what, five letters? It's a yuh, not a juh. That's all. Like, that grinds my gears. Even when at the cookout, the family members, that Yolkich dude is crazy. I'm like, it's Yolkich, bro. Yolkich. But I just think he's got such a unique set of skills that it's almost too unique. Like, it's not complementary in a way and that you have to run through him. It's like with Mello. You have, they're so, so incredible at what they do and how they do it. It can't necessarily play another way. I don't agree with that take. And the reason I don't agree with it is because we've seen him defer and play legitimate playoff series, basically, when Jamal Murray and Don Vimich were going head to head, dropping fifties on each other's head. The parallel between him and Mello is so different because Mello's play style was like, I'm gonna get you a bucket. And if I'm not getting you a bucket, I'm not really contributing on the office side of the ball any other way. Jokic is the best passing center we've ever seen in the game of basketball. So, yes, his usage rate will be high, but you want it to be because he's more than I'ma get you a bucket type dude. We're gonna talk about a legit three level scorer at the center position that can do a little head nod, tell his teammate to cut and put it on the dime. So, yeah, he has a unique play style. That's one of the reasons why he's great. It's not replicatable by a lot of people in the NBA. So, yeah, he's gonna be high usage no matter the case. But I don't even know why you would ask him to not be high usage considering how good of an offensive player he is. They go on and talk about like, who would you rather have him or Jimmy Butler? That's all opinion-based. You might wanna take Jimmy, you might wanna take Jokic. It doesn't really matter at the end of the day. So we'll just get past that. They're playing the would you rather game. Which is fun. I've played it on my podcast for sure. Let me know what you think about this one. Paul George, but I think I'd rather have Jokic. Devin Booker? I think I'd rather have Devin Booker. You'd rather have Devin Booker than Nicola Jokic. Now, love me some Devin Booker. But I'm taking Jokic 100% of the time and I won't even think twice about it. You know what I'm saying? I'm taking Jokic. And I think majority of NBA fans are probably taking Jokic too. So the MVP is what, the 15th best player you'd want on your team? It's kind of weird. It's very weird. That's what I'm saying. That's what's weird about it, guys. All right. So things, this is where we stood, like up to this point, there's been some stuff that I disagree with that we'll talk about. It's once we get to the second half of these clips that I'm like, bro, you're stepping on your own feet. Let me rewind this. So let's talk about some of the stuff that he's mentioned in here. People are going to tell you he was good enough to be the MVP of the league, but he can't be the MVP of the team. I like this guy. He has some sense. Even if he's just playing doubles advocate, I'm rocking it. It's happened a lot in NBA history. Well, we saw, there was an argument. Russell Westbrook won the MVP and he lost in the first round, but in five games. Exactly. Isn't that just like a disingenuous thing to say? Am I bugging? Russell Westbrook won the MVP and then he lost in the first round and five games. Like factual statement, but isn't there some, like it doesn't feel disingenuous to even use that as an argument, like in your favor, the Russell Westbrook MVP where his second best player was before he got his shape, Victor Oladipo? Like that's such a bad argument, in my opinion. So not about to start talking about the, oh, he got eliminated in the first round thing. Should he have been the MVP? Which I think, again, is not a very good conversation to have, but they're having it and let's just listen to what they're saying. Well, you know, a lot of people had thought NBA should have been MVP. And he was saying, look, so the MVP of the league can't get out of the first round. What does that say? Should he have won the award? What do you guys think about that? I mean, it is a regular season award. And what he did in the regular season was amazing. That's, and right there, that should be the end of the conversation. If you ask me, it is a regular season award. And what he did in the regular season was amazing. Cut the clip, tweet it out. There's no need for the rest of the conversation, but it does go on. Now again, like I said, this is where bro starts stepping on his own feet. So let's see what they say. He did not have his two best teammates. Oh, another good point. Absolutely, no. I mean, injuries have defined the NBA postseason historically. There have always been moments throughout time where key injuries have caused the doors of fate to open in a different direction. If you... You don't say! So when we go back and look at the original tweet, there's context to all of these things. There's context. Every single playoff run is benefited from some type of injury or something happening. And I do want y'all to understand. I understand that injuries are a big part of it. That does not make a championship less worthy to me. So me pointing out this stuff does not mean that I think these warrior championships don't matter because they definitely do. But again, like we're talking about, he, his own words were injuries, rights, the history, whatever, whatever. Drew Holiday in 2015 in the first round was injured for the Pelicans. Second round, Mike Hanley was out. Patrick Beverly was out. Does he make that big of a difference in 2015? Maybe not, but this is injury luck. And then we get to the finals. Cary Irvin and Kevin Love both get injured. Champions should bring. Narkage is out in 2017. George Hill is out, who was starting at that point. San Antonio had the Kawhi Leonard thing. Of course, as you know, I don't even remember Tony Parker getting injured. I don't even remember that one. And then again, we get the Kawhi Leonard thing. And then Boogie Cousins is out for the Pelicans. And if you don't remember, that Pelican scene was fire. I'm not saying they were the one that series as Boogie was hooping, but that Anthony Davis-Boogie combination was looking kind of nice before he got injured. So again, injury luck is huge. Even for some of the people on your original tweet. So how can we say that Yolk is just team and the amount of injuries shouldn't play a part in the fact that they haven't reached the next level? This right here, let me round a little bit. This right here is the moment he knew that he stepped on his own foot. Let's get into it, ladies and gentlemen, because this is about to get good. The doors of fate to open in a different direction, if you will. Absolutely. Not just NBA, but sports. And it's been unfortunate for Yolk it's the last two seasons to have guys down at key times in the year. All right, does that mean like, I don't know what do you want to say? Like he has guys injured. Everyone has guys injured. Oh, but what? You see him stammering over his words because he realized, damn, them boys did just had two max players injured. So me saying, oh, what happened last year in the playoffs should be irrelevant because this team was built with two max players that are hooping. Let's not be recording these videos so late at night. Sometimes I don't do the best of getting my point across. Another thing that I failed to mention in this one, it's just bad to say that Yolkitch can't be the best player on the championship team, considering we all agree that all you need is some injury luck and you can do it. You have a couple players go out on the opposing team, you take advantage and boom, you got a ring and that's all that really matters. It takes an immense amount of talent and a lot of luck as well. That's how you win a championship. Talking about Michael Porter Jr. versus Chris Middleton. Solid player, but Yannis didn't have Chris Middleton, a made guy in the league. Michael Porter Jr. is not a made guy on any level in the league. That's true. Right? Chris Middleton is. He's an Olympian. He's an All-Star. So basically what he's saying, hey, Yannis lost Chris Middleton and he still advanced at least to the second round. Where Yolkic, he didn't have his guy and Michael Porter Jr. But I also remember he didn't have Jamal Murray too, but let's look past that. He didn't have his guy, Michael Porter Jr. And he lost in the first round. He lost in the first round to the eventual champions, first of all. And the level of competition that Yannis played against, do you remember who they beat in the first round? It was the goddamn Bulls, who in the second half of the season was like the 20 of 22nd best team in basketball or worst team, depending on how you look at it. It's the level of competition was completely different, bro. Yolkic's lost to the eventual NBA champions, a team that submitted themselves as a dynasty. And this shouldn't have turned into a Yannis versus Yolkic's team, but it did in this case. And Yannis beat the Bulls, which again is good because you're losing Chris Middleton. That's incredible that you were able to do that. But it's still just the Bulls versus the Warriors. And then what did we see when Yannis went against a team that was on at least a similar level than the Warriors? They lost. You know why? Because they didn't have Chris Middleton. The injuries play such a big part there. And it's played such a big part in these last two seasons for Nikola Yolkic. It's the same thing. It's just so wild, bro. And listen, I respect giving the love to Yannis because Yannis did the thing. You still have to go out there and win that series. We were talking about Yannis going against a defense that wasn't good. And that was the Bulls, especially with Lonzo Ball being out. And then Yolkic going against one of the best defense in the league. Remember, this NBA finals was the best defense in the league versus the second best defense in the league, right? And then what happened when Yannis went against the boss of Celtics who was the number one defense in the league? He lost. Once you look at that, bro lost to the team that actually defends. I'm surprised. And Yolkic did the exact same thing. Does it, to me, it doesn't matter if it was in the first or in the second round, considering the circumstances. And I understand why Denver fans love their Yolkic. He's their guy. But I'm telling you, it's Fools' Gold. I'm telling you. It's Fools' Gold. I'm telling you it's not gonna work out. We'll see. It's Fools' Gold. It's how he ends it. It's Fools' Gold, which is actually, I don't think he did it on purpose, but we're talking about the Denver Nuggets and the Gold Rush and boom, boom, bam. So I just thought that a lot of the arguments were just not very well thought out. And I would have loved for some of his co-hosts to push back on it just a little bit. Cause that's what these shows are about. At least there should be conversations about basketball. Again, he said some pretty solid stuff though, you know? But at the end of the day, the meat and potatoes of it, in my opinion, just weren't very good. So I don't know. Do y'all like me going out there and dissecting other people's takes? Let me know or send them my way if you do.