Is The NBA Still On YOUR Radar?

[00:00:00] Ladies and gentlemen, what transpired last night was an absolute travesty. Nearly 400 points were scored. No defense, no effort whatsoever. This is the ultimate indictment against the NBA stars who show up on NBA All Star Weekend. The following is a presentation of Hobson Media. Will Who?

[00:00:22] Anybody care what this guy thinks? No! This is the Church Pew Sports podcast featuring a group of pastors delivering bombastic takes on sports, life and faith. I knew it was possibility to see it in real time, holy can Holy, this is crazy. Take a knee.

[00:00:43] This game's on a basketball court twice, guys we got a squash of boy. Lendon ear. And these are some of the best questions I've ever had to tell you that straight up. What was that special? As the Church Pew Sports podcast begins...

[00:00:56] It's more like a baseball bat than these camps. That man next thing you submitted, it got to heaven! Two days! Thanks for the door, all right? We got tomorrow. We got now. We got now. We got you with us on Church Pew Sports.

[00:01:09] Thanks for listening, subscribe, and hopefully sharing the link with other sports fans in your world. It's good to have you along for the ride Bill Hobson here sitting alongside Paul Miller, who is part of the team at the evangelical weight free Church of America.

[00:01:24] Yes, I got it right. You got it right, right? Yes. And we're also joined by Pastor Sam Burke, who is the campus pastor for Hopefail Church in Sagano and by Emmy Award-winning Broadcaster Ryan Slokum, who's a big NBA guy,

[00:01:39] because Paul, we have been negligent in our duties as hosts of this program. We have completely ignored basketball up until this point in the season. We're recording this on February 19th. I really don't think unless there was a passing mention in some feature that we do,

[00:02:00] I don't think we've really talked about basketball in the least and football has dominated all of our lives. I know Sam Burke is deeply offended by that as a big basketball. I'm a big warriors guy. Yes. So Sam, we plead for forgiveness right off the bat.

[00:02:16] Are you willing to forgive and move forward? Yeah, I am, although I've been needy for Hopefail. All these Michigan fans, little distracted. Lions fans, Michigan fans, I wasn't even distracted by Michigan basketball. Secondly, not Ryan Slano but who are Ryan Slokum. This season, which team is worse?

[00:02:41] Did he trade pistons or the Michigan Wolverine basketball team? Oh. Buddy, that's a close call. The pistons may have put themselves back in the conversation here. Not like they're good or anything but they've actually won a couple games lately.

[00:02:59] So yeah, the little rings may end up on the short end there. You know, Paul over the course of the last couple of years of doing church who we have been able to track audience response according to the topics we're exploring. Yeah, football is always the king.

[00:03:18] And soccer and basketball have just been at the bottom of everything. Right? I don't know why that is. I don't know if it's an accurate harbinger of how popular basketball is across the spectrum. If you turn down any of the all star weekend festivities, my condolences.

[00:03:36] Yeah, but apparently a lot of people are supposed to be watching those things. So Sam, where are we with basketball enthusiasm as a sports culture these days? Um, that's a great question. I like basketball, but every time I turn the NBA on, I'm pretty disappointed. Yeah.

[00:03:59] I don't know, it's got to be better than baseball, but not like football. What what disappoint you when you turn on the NBA? No defense. Everything's a three pointer and you might as well, like, you know, the teams that you know we're

[00:04:15] going to win are going to win and no one's going to lose. No, we're going to lose. So just for clarification, you're not talking just about the all star game. No defense. Yeah. You know, I'm not, I'm not talking about just the off-sour game.

[00:04:27] I mean, there how many games this year have been over like 125 points? There's been a ton. Yeah. Yeah, it's like all of that. Yeah, Ryan, what happened to defense in the NBA? The hallmark of, you know, our piston bad boys and our piston going to work teams,

[00:04:46] the hallmark of the old bulls championship teams, the stuff. What happened to defense where to go? That's exactly what happened. They changed y'all the rules. The pistons of 04 held five straight teams under 70 points. They changed all the rules.

[00:05:02] They kept tweaking it, kept tweaking it because nobody wanted to see NBA finals games that were 68 to 61. And now it's gotten to the point where it's not that these guys don't play defense.

[00:05:15] They're not allowed to play defense and yeah, and that's why you see games that are literally scoring 80 points at the half. And I think scoring all across the board is up. And I, last I knew the Pacers were leading the league and scoring in there like at 130 again.

[00:05:35] It's pretty crazy, man. So yeah, it's not that they can't because athletes are better than they've ever been in all sports. Guys are more athletic. They just not, they don't let them play defense anymore. And so there you go.

[00:05:52] And there's a lot more threes out of suit, but yeah. And I, I don't know how you coach a professional team. When they're not as Ryan said accurately, they're really not allowed to put hands on. They're not allowed to check. They're not allowed to bump anybody.

[00:06:08] The Bill Cartwright Bill and beer era would be just one big fine and suspension after another. If they were to try to play these days. So and at the same time though, Sam, when I watch your warriors, I enjoy watching them because they are a finely crafted machine.

[00:06:26] Even though they end up shooting 35 three-pointers a game. I think I think one of the problems is not every team can can shoot with that proficiency, but they still try and it's just a big brick fest. Yeah, it really is.

[00:06:41] And the warriors are kind of hitting mess this year, right? So but their, their offenses year to get the shot and get the open shot and they have good shooters normally. What I don't love is dribble dribble, dribble, dribble, dribble, dribble, shoot by one guy.

[00:06:57] I'm telling you it's a boring to watch. And just not a lot of fun when you're, you're like, oh, there they go again, you know, and there's not a lot of team ball going on. Well, since we're just picking up basketball at the mid-way point of the season,

[00:07:13] we are recording just a half a day after the NBA All-Star weekend concluded. So let's dive into that for a couple of moments. I really didn't watch much of it. I watched a little bit of the dunk contest and was really,

[00:07:29] really turned, turned away by it from everything from judging because we've talked on this podcast before ball about how if you got to hold up a card with a number on it, it may not be a sport

[00:07:41] and they did some really bizarre things with their judging. All the way to that, all the way through the end of the weekend to the All-Star game where as Steven A Smith said at the outset of our podcast,

[00:07:51] there's over 400 points scored. Here's the rest of that sound bite from Steven A and then we'll talk about it. Ladies and gentlemen, what transpired last night was an absolute travesty. Nearly 400 points were scored. No defense, no effort whatsoever. This is the ultimate indictment against the NBA stars who

[00:08:11] show up on NBA All-Star weekend. You play harder in the summer league when you train it. That's all anybody's asking. We all know that when you plan into some of the time and stuff like

[00:08:21] that, anybody trying to get hurt but you still give one another effort because you're working on your game. You can't give the fans at least that. If I was asking you to compete like you're

[00:08:33] going up against the playoffs or even a regular season game. But when you are working out at some of Tom Shannon, you know this. Okay, you see guys giving effort in the summertime.

[00:08:45] Effort in the summertime, not of the All-Star game. No. Is there a sport? Is there a major sport with a watchable All-Star game anymore? You're going to be so surprised by my answer bill. I actually

[00:08:56] would prefer the major league baseball. Yeah, I want to play. Because they have that thing where nobody plays more than one or two innings. They just rotate the guys through. So it's actually an All-Star event and I see a little bit of each guy and nobody's like,

[00:09:15] what's his name, Carl Anthony Towns trying to get to 50 and none of that's going on and each guy gets his turn. That's actually more interesting to me than the NHL or the NBA for sure in the

[00:09:27] Pro Bowl. Don't even, yeah. Well, they've given up on it. Yeah. Totally. Right, it's welcome. You're strapped to a chair. The bad guys are trying to get out of you all of the secrets that

[00:09:38] you have hidden inside your brain and to do it. They're going to make you watch one of the major sports All-Star games. Which one is more likely to cause you to give up the secrets the

[00:09:50] soonest because you just can't stand another minute of watching this? Is it going to be basketball? No. That'd be the Pro Bowl. Okay, sure. Which is now literally a flag football game.

[00:10:05] It's bad as this was last night. I'm kind of like, you should have been like this for I don't know how many years. You do still, let's say, Halibur. It's first five, three,

[00:10:22] two, the night. Things like that were somewhat exciting. Watching Game Lillard shoot a jump shot from half court. That was okay. It's passable. It's very, it's a D-minus. It's definitely a D-minus.

[00:10:40] I do miss the days that growing up Bill. I probably watch a few of the games that you do when they used to be on Sunday afternoon, not at whatever the heck time it was last night. The world series

[00:10:52] was called and then saying, guys, you're starting this game too late. What's wrong with you? Who's like eight, forty eight or something like that when they finally started this game and yeah, I probably

[00:11:05] watch a few of them view on the Sunday afternoons. Those were great games. I mean, those guys literally, they did. They wanted to play. They wanted to beat the other team. And, you know,

[00:11:18] obviously it's not that anymore. It's glorified. You will out there. The National Anthem was performed at about 803. I saw that part and the game tipped off as Ryan said somewhere around 845 and I don't

[00:11:31] know what they did in between because I, you know, I bolted out of there. You flipped to American title and I did actually for a little bit. I find myself trying not to be the get off my long guy

[00:11:42] but I do appreciate the input from some of the old timers who used to play in the games and care about who want them, including some Celtic by the name of Bird. One thing I would really like

[00:11:53] to see is they play hard tonight and this, uh, tonight and this all star game. I think it's very important when you have the best, the best players in the world together. You got to compete

[00:12:05] and you got to play hard and you guys show the fans how good they really are. So I hope you enjoy your weekend. I'm enjoying mine. Have a good all star game. You know, Larry just kind of calling

[00:12:18] it out but nobody laid down the lumber quite as, as sternly as Kobe did back when he would talk about the all star game. I think the off star game in general needs a little revamping because

[00:12:30] it used to be competitive. Yeah, they used to be competitive in like fans want to see the best pick-up game in the world. So that's what this is. They want to see you running up and down

[00:12:40] and dunking into all this crazy like they want to see what happens when you get these collection of best basketball players on a planet and they play and they go head up against each other.

[00:12:48] Man, I mean, you guys play hard and you're going to pick up gaming use, yeah, like, for real. And a billions of people watching. Yeah, they do. Okay, so we've heard from Bird. We've heard from Kobe.

[00:13:00] You got to hear from the guy in charge of the league because the adrenaline, the excitement of the past. The energy in that arena in Indianapolis post game as commissioner Adam Silver was on

[00:13:15] the floor about to hand out the MVP award. It just comes screaming through in this, I think 11 seconds sound by this is this is special. And to the Eastern conference all stars, you scored the most

[00:13:30] points. Well, congratulations. Yeah, it's great. Well, Sam, as you prepare for your next message it shirts, can you kind of harness some of that enthusiasm that the commissioner suffered as

[00:13:46] brought to the table? Yeah, well, I guess it's okay. Okay, so let's take a moment and try to fix the all star game or fix it or get rid of it. Sam, what's what's the route you would prefer to take?

[00:14:02] They got to put something on the line whether it's playing off thing, whether it's money, they're like, I mean, I don't know, money's a thing because they make the match. It's got a effect like something giving advantage in the playoff, whether it's on court advantage

[00:14:19] in the final or something like they try to do it baseball because unless something like that stage these guys aren't going to want to play it like part of the event and Michael the

[00:14:29] challenge. And just why I shoot them all, don't just be, you can wrap up the most point. And you'll walk that fine line between wanting a competitive game and then of course risking the guy

[00:14:40] who blows his Achilles out because he rolls his ankle. So I don't Ryan, what do you do with all this? Yeah, that's it. I agree completely. Sam, I think that may be the only way to do it

[00:14:52] because they said going into this game guys don't forget from silver to you name it. Everybody was talking about, yeah, we got to be better this year. We got to try harder

[00:15:04] we got to be more competitive and then they went out and they didn't do it at all. So I think the only way to do it is to put something on the line. And even then though, I don't know if you're

[00:15:17] only going to get competitive in the final five minutes or something like that, which we have seen in the past as well. It's a, you know, a don't show and then they play for five minutes.

[00:15:28] I think that's probably the only way. But when you look at it, don't forget remember how much punishment but sealing and majorly baseball took when they did make home field for the

[00:15:43] world series on the line in the all star game. I mean, they got absolutely what's your for that? To the point they don't do it anymore. I think that would work. But you know, at what cost are

[00:15:55] you going to end up turning people off because of an exhibition game. So they're kind of screwing man. I don't know. I really don't know their kind of against the wall here. There's really no

[00:16:08] amount of financial incentive that is going to move the needle for the top player's in the game. Just as Sam mentioned, they're making $35, $45 million a year if you put a million dollars on the

[00:16:22] game. You're still not going to see guys diving for loose balls. So what would you do? Yeah, I like the idea of home court for the finals though that I don't know how the fans would

[00:16:30] receive that. I actually think it would be cool if they had an all star team that played against an all star team of first and second year players. Because the young guys like they're still interested

[00:16:43] in competing in this land, don't contest and they got something like maybe we can get a thing where LeBron is going up against somehow chat rookies. Here's my chance to show them man and maybe then

[00:16:54] there would be a little bit of pride that was show up because there's none right now like Brian and all the guys are talking about, you know we're so competitive in everything else. Well maybe

[00:17:02] roll you out against all the young guys that are trying this deal here. Spotlight away from you and see if that does something. I don't know. Yeah, that's interesting. Ryan mentioned the

[00:17:11] dunk contest. We got to talk about it for a moment. The the good old fashion days, again I'm the old guy get off my lawn. This is the sound and the crowd reaction to Vince Carter in 2010.

[00:17:27] It obviously we are an audio medium so you can't tell what he did but for Vince in that day it was a full on 360 down to the ankles come up Tomahawk. It had not been seen before. Now it's

[00:17:51] like the bar has been raised but my goodness this young kid Max McClung who's a G-Legor not in the NBA. Somehow gets an exemption into the dunk contest. Wins it by jumping over two people.

[00:18:06] One on the shoulders of the other grabs the ball out of the guy's hand. It was incredible especially since he's I think Ryan is six foot tall and one of his dunks he jumped without touching shack

[00:18:19] over shack. And then this one he jumps over two people. Here's how that sounded last night. He did it too easy. He just did it too easy. He did it too easy. That time there's nothing left

[00:18:42] for them to do. So I don't know Sam you got your boys love basketball too right so did you watch the dunk contest and is it still appointment viewing television? I watched it with my daughter actually. My boys like whatever. The problem is it's all been done before

[00:19:04] and they have a bunch of amateur guys who could do it better than the throw guys doing. They have all that on TV and not YouTube and everything. It's kind of like the wild factor

[00:19:17] of what he does do is kind of like now we've seen that before and everybody's done it before. So I don't know. I mean there's some amateur guys you can probably blow all of that out of the water

[00:19:30] if you just look on YouTube. Yeah. I don't know what they're going to do to pick that. I've looked a little bit on YouTube and you're not kidding. Some of the street ball guys.

[00:19:38] Oh my word. So Ryan here's my proposal and you tell me because you remember vence and you remember Dominique and a little bit of Michael before Michael got too big for the dunk contest. But my

[00:19:49] idea is you go to each NBA city and you find those guys. Nobody has heard of and they have their own little regional American idol kind of dunk competition and then you bring all of those

[00:20:00] regional winners in to do the dunk contest and the NBA guys are not even a part of it anymore but they're representing kind of their hometown. I mean the D would get behind some guy who had become

[00:20:11] a local legend even though nobody from the pistons is in the all-star game. So what do you do with it? What do you think of it as where it is right now? Well that's honestly that's not a bad idea because it's really no different than Mac McClomb.

[00:20:26] I mean who knows who that guy is? Nobody. It is now he's been in two years and he's one both times. So yeah that's really not a bad idea whatsoever. You know to me,

[00:20:39] and again I'm an NBA junkie so it is appointment viewing still because you do here in there end up with a contest that you can't believe how good it is and the one that off the top my head

[00:20:57] was the one that went to like five over times or ten over times or whatever it was between Aaron Gordon and uh I can't think of his name. So that's what he my man from the bulls. Yes and

[00:21:11] that was insane. I mean I never thought another dunk contest would be as good as the 2001 the one you played a bench Carter. You got to remember Steve Francis was awesome in that dunk contest

[00:21:24] tracing the grading was awesome and that was probably the best dunk contest ever. I thought nothing would ever even come close and then here we go whatever year it was 2016 some random night

[00:21:36] two guys that nobody really knows who they are put on the greatest show ever. So that does happen. The problem is it's just once every five years or something and then we're dealt with five

[00:21:48] years of garbage. So it is still appointment viewing I don't think you need to change anything because I think they've already tried they've done the shot clock you get so many dunks in a minute or

[00:22:02] thirty seconds or whatever they've done the no props thing they've done you have to use props. They've done you've had to use a teammate. I mean they've done a million things. So it's just going

[00:22:13] to take some idiot to decide to put your land on magic mascot on a hoverboard and start doing circles and then grab the ball and jump over his head. You know like Aaron Gordon did it's just

[00:22:27] going to have to take some idiot thinking something really stupid that's what it's going to take and it happens about once every five years but then we're left with garbage. Right right as Max

[00:22:38] McClung just a terrible shooter and defender because he can't seem to crack the league but he can right and win their dunk contest. Yeah you know what I'd be lying to you if I had the

[00:22:51] McClung scouter in your poor Emma finger kiss here come on so Sam's got it. Just nobody has like a 90 inch vertical that's all I got for sure. Sam and he would come back. Yeah you can't shoot.

[00:23:05] That's the biggest thing. You think too and in order to be an NBA at six to you you've got to be a great distributor of the ball or you've got to be able to shoot and he's okay dribbler but it can't

[00:23:20] shoot. Interesting you go especially in today's game that's all it is. Yeah. Okay so I'll start game behind us YouTube guys Sam and Ryan I think we're relying on you to kind of catch us up on where

[00:23:33] where things stand in the NBA who's good who's we know who's terrible they're about 90 minutes away from where I'm sitting right now but who are your contenders right now who are you looking at

[00:23:43] and who's the bigger story? The Cavaliers or the timber wolves and what surprises have you guys observed a sample that you go first. I think the biggest thing is you're in a Celtic thought

[00:23:54] when everybody's gonna be like what? But I think the timber wolves are surprised. I mean they've been going into the years but they're kind of one in the last. I don't know. I think they might have

[00:24:09] some problems and they're under you know going to play off and you can't you know that hurt all but I would not be surprised if we felt they expand they just threw it on the actual one.

[00:24:20] Ryan what do you see? What's your midseason report or also serves as our NBA preview? Yeah yeah I think definitely the Celtics in the East especially with the big fell and Philly now and B going down again man unfortunately you know his body just isn't cooperating

[00:24:41] and I thought they were very good but without him being 100% you know I think they're out so Boston in the East. I think in the West I think it's wide open. I really do there's like four

[00:24:55] teams up there with the timber wolves who have shocked the world after being not good at all last year. People thought they really go bear trade may have been the worst trade in NBA history well

[00:25:06] now it's working out they figured it out over there but I think the West is wide open I think any one of those top few teams can win it and don't count out. They're starting to play better

[00:25:19] I'll give you this though the Milwaukee blocks are an absolute mess and they were my picked winning it all last year. I thought they were going to be good again this year then for some

[00:25:33] reason they decided to hire Doc Rivers who is the most everyone this was a hot take five years ago now it's like common knowledge Doc Rivers is the most overrated coach in the history of the NBA

[00:25:47] that guy has never done a thing without that one year in Boston where he had one of the greatest teams of all time to hire that guy because you're like this is it we're playing the win this year

[00:26:01] and you're hired Doc Rivers the guys blown us to read one lead in a playoffs like five times it's unbelievable and they're like two and seven with him is the head coach and I'll give you one

[00:26:16] other one speaking of overrated I think we're finding out why Danny and Lillard has never won a thing that guy is not good he's one of those guys some roof will go down in the all-time pantheon

[00:26:34] of losers he is Bernard came he's tracing a grady he's Carmelo Anthony he is a sugar he's all offent he does not play the game the right way whatsoever and you're seeing it now

[00:26:49] in Milwaukee and I mean if they win anything this year I will be shocked beyond belief they traded the best on ball defender in the NBA to get this guy and I mean he'll fill it up

[00:27:04] I mean obviously you can shoot he can score but at what cost and he does not play team ball he is a one-on-one you talked about dribble the ball around and then chuck it up earlier in the show

[00:27:16] that's what this guy does and it's going to be to the detriment of Janice and the box hey did you Ryan did you happen to catch chat talking to Dan after the all-star game or he

[00:27:29] oh no I didn't I barely made it to the end so you gotta see that it's worth google and just to hear shack because they're doing the post game thing and it's like shack and barkly and Kenny and

[00:27:40] Dan is sitting right there and shack is basically says to him you need to get your act together because if you because he basically said you guys suck right now and one of three people is

[00:27:53] going to get blamed either doc rivers is going to get blamed or jianice or you and he looks right at lillard and goes you need to get your head right and you need to go back to the second half of

[00:28:03] this season and get your teammates together and say we have got to straighten this outfills because this is not good enough and lillers just like sitting there taking it going you're right you're right

[00:28:12] you have to it's amazing yeah right wow and you know man and I've watched a ton of books this year a lot and especially at the beginning of the year and it probably took the kid the kid took

[00:28:26] Dan some time you know the season and new place for the first time ever and everything but watching him play I mean he plays hero ball man constantly and I mean it's worse than Carmelo

[00:28:38] and it's worse than Tracy McGrady he roll ball out there and I'm like they're not going to win and we know he's a turn style on defense so you went from the best defensive team in the league

[00:28:54] with Lopez, Janice and then Drew holiday who they got rid of will Lopez is like 49 years old now I mean he can't keep doing it and now you got him it's it's unbelievable man I mean he really

[00:29:09] I don't know what he can do with this point because he's in his 30s and I don't know what he can change at this point but if they win the the east I will be shocked yeah say I'm I've got a question for you about your warriors

[00:29:24] what do you do what do you do with Raymond Green where where is he as a contributor right now versus a liability and that kind of loose can and as he's proven to be several times in the last couple years

[00:29:43] apart because he doesn't like him and he will stuff that they needed it's got to be on the important deal it and he's got to be in the right headspace to do it and I don't know I think

[00:29:54] then bring an interest all the center of the mess and he kind of messed up who they are but I don't know I mean sometimes I like I'm glad he's out on the tour when I'm off to him play

[00:30:07] because I'm like someone got a piece of distributor and Jay play open money like Drew them if he's not the one who was going to do it apparently I have no idea how to find the knees out there

[00:30:18] because he's never know what's going to happen and it's like that you give the other two momentum playing your like you're in a catch point these situations where you're like I got to have them but we can't

[00:30:31] have them take off yeah he's he's certainly different than he was five years ago I granted every player gets older so they've got to find other ways to to contribute and for drama that seems to be contributing by subtraction like he's going to knock somebody down

[00:30:49] gets suspended for five games and not help the team at all I think what Drew Mondo was did was the other things to contribute yeah that's what he made it life off of you know and he's

[00:31:02] getting older so obviously he can't do it at the same level he used to do it but I'm glad Sam you brought up Chris Paul because I found that head scratching from the beginning

[00:31:12] I mean that's another guy who's never won a thing and unfortunately for him he's a team mate killer his teammates in every city he's ever been in absolutely hate him they hate him

[00:31:27] and then you brought him into this team that's really been nothing but you know let the good times roll and I found that very interesting and in drama on hate him too those two do not get

[00:31:39] along I mean they're on record saying they do not like each other at all and you put those two together very strange combo and then play obviously plays a shell of his former self because of the injuries

[00:31:54] and everything so yeah it's kind of rough Clay will probably maybe have a tattoo too yeah it's tricky because both guys we when they were they were clicking it's like the GM starts messing with the chemistry on the team and adding in these big pieces and it's turning

[00:32:13] a gerand and he's I mean he's fit with that pretty well until he didn't and then they just start adding these little pieces here and they're thinking they're going to do something and it

[00:32:24] always doesn't make their chemistry worse so the one here that they they won when they they didn't have to add any big names trying to help them figure it out they just kind of got

[00:32:36] what they had speaking of chemistry issues I think it's pretty well known that over the years Trayman Green and Charles Barkley have not been very tight really like each other very much

[00:32:48] there was a threat at one point to punch somebody in the face or whatever well I think probably the for me the only highlight of all star weekend is when the NBA on TNT crew does their thing like

[00:32:59] Ryan was alluding to a moment ago and like you were talking about with yeah with the the very frank discussions yeah well Trayman came on the set and he sat next to Barkley this was fun okay you know what's funny about that you know what that's about you

[00:33:16] you're not gonna lose that nobody you know what's funny about that you know what was asking about you the other day who's that nobody and then a few seconds later Trayman said hey Chuck we hold on to my ring for me because that's the ultimate comeback against

[00:33:33] Barkley yeah so speaking of basketball we've got some fun snap judgment moments here Paul's got them put together so get ready boys no no more questions just figure it out for

[00:33:45] and get it done just do it don't listen to what we have not done this in a while so let me remind you guys how it works I have found a couple of either or scenarios headlines from

[00:33:58] the past week or so in the world's worst they're actually all basketball related and so I'll throw the scenario out there I'll choose one of you guys to answer you got about 20 seconds

[00:34:07] to give us your answer and defend your answer and then the rest of the group will decide if you're right or wrong so Ryan you're up first are you ready yes let's do it I've not done this before

[00:34:16] so yeah let's go let's go okay so the headline you got is Caitlyn Clark passes whoever it was for the all-time women's NCAA basketball scoring record and he's blowing calcium and they immediately

[00:34:30] start talking about whether or not she's gonna pass Pete mayor of it all right so I want to know if there's any difference between the women's game and the men's game the fact that Caitlyn Clark is

[00:34:43] probably gonna catch Pete mayor of it she's like a hundred points behind are you indifferent to that or is there no difference between the men's game and the women's game I actually didn't know that

[00:34:52] but to pistol peach credit and I'm going in my way back LSU machine here no three point line with pistol so he averaged 40 points a game one year with no three point line if you know anything about

[00:35:09] Caitlyn Clark she is the Steph Curry of college basketball she just chucked she broke the record like from the logo just steps in and fires it away she's the Steph Curry of women's college whoop

[00:35:24] so yeah if you give pistol Pete of three point line I mean come on man nobody's touching him Eddie led the country in assists somehow at the same time and I think he did that if my

[00:35:36] time remembering right he did that in three seasons yeah his his point total so we don't have these ridiculous we're gonna say okay that's good okay build next one's coming to you Isaiah Stewart punches drew you banks in the tunnel before they're again

[00:35:52] is this the bad boys or is this boy that's bad boy that's bad the bad boys didn't punch people in the tunnel they punched him on the court when they could send a message and not get

[00:36:04] literally arrested which is what beef stew ended up having happened to him and apparently when it happened he was surrounded by his own teammates nobody has yet reported what transpired back there that would have

[00:36:17] led to this but he's been he's he has shown before his volcanic temper boy that's bad when you're on a team with single digit wins you can't be a bad boy you can't be doing that you have not earned the

[00:36:32] right you know you have not all right that's good I think we would all agree with you all right Sam you there okay so I was struck by the headline that the warriors and the lakers were kind of

[00:36:43] having closed door behind the scenes trade talks about LeBron joining staff at the at the trade deadline so I want to know as LeBron headed towards the goat or as he headed towards the plane

[00:36:58] play in if you gotta join staff the win that's the ultimate like ring trade that is the ultimate ring jays I think I think you're right on that one and then I got a bonus one

[00:37:12] for all of us all right and it's comes from LeBron on the part of his press conference at all star weekend I just want you guys to listen when Brian was asked about whether he's going to do a

[00:37:22] farewell tour I've never been that great with accepting like praise I think this is a ear felt for me I'm going to talk about it much but it's just a ear felt for me LeBron the guy who has

[00:37:44] to add two's over his body of how great he is right I'm not that great at accepting praise maybe well let me stop pass your play on LeBron's humility I'll go first it's quite likely that in his

[00:37:56] very large home the biggest room within that home is his trophy case for humility trophies and he needs to build on to it so I hope LeBron the wallflower can somehow find it with

[00:38:07] it himself to give us people a chance to tell him how great he is one more time yeah you're wonderful yeah if there was anyone ever that wanted the victory lab tour that we've seen you know

[00:38:21] dare jeter and Miguel Cabrera and whoever the heck else has done it through the years I mean he would be the ultimate is he not a holy cow and I'm a LeBron guy like I mean the guy is

[00:38:34] awesome right I mean he's incredible there's no question about it to me he's number two all time but I mean come on Brian yeah you like it too much yeah give me a break Brian

[00:38:54] Sam yeah that's what the past for me so he doesn't already have like two documentary out about him yeah he produced both of them yeah like one was when it was in the

[00:39:06] race school I'm going to be on the edge so it's only fitting he's gonna get one going out of me and be able like book end that I guess I don't know I'm probably not gonna watch it

[00:39:17] that's I haven't thought about that that's actually you if you if he didn't already had the idea you just gave it to him but Doc he manneried the final season yeah I think that's coming

[00:39:29] you know there's a crew surround it has to yeah it has to it's not gonna be up page by his life that's what he's got to do something but will he suddenly playing with him you know from the

[00:39:43] almost as bad as Michigan Wolverine to you as he trodms almost as bad as the keyword almost yeah almost is it's a really quick game or something something and you know man obviously

[00:40:00] the kid went through a health situation in the summer so obviously you wish oh no you'll will dare in that probably slow them down you would think but dude I say a collier was supposed

[00:40:12] to be the number one pick on the draft everybody's got him down to like 20 it now and and brunny you know they thought he was something too dude he's not good I mean he's not ready

[00:40:24] he's not ready you know well there's something to do with the contest where they asked brun this weekend about it and brun you know because he oh he's one and done he's one and done

[00:40:37] they asked brun about it this weekend he was like well it's up to the kid you know we're going to let the kid decide what he wants to do you know if he wants to stay in school or stay in school

[00:40:46] he better stay in school yeah I mean good grief the league is watered down but it's not that watered down so all right let's let's fly over to our holy discontent and then Ryan here's a

[00:40:59] little teaser for you in a couple of moments Paul has a wrestling question stand by right my holy discontent has to do with the trip I just ended I just got back from Dallas

[00:41:27] Texas the Frisco area Paul Miller's former stomping grounds and he tells me I have to go and eat at this place called hard eight barbecue and you walk in and you walk up to the to the pit where

[00:41:40] they're grilling every meat that has ever walked around on the earth and you order it by the pound so I I've he'd the guy is slicing up some brisket I'm like how much did you just slice off he goes

[00:41:51] half pound I go that that'll do for me and give me half pound of turkey my producer my my production director Greg is with me he thinks that he heard me say give me a pound of each so

[00:42:05] so he steps up and he goes yeah I've I will pound a brisket and a pound of sausage well the guy looks at him like are you all sure and so Greg's tray is covered in like a carnivores dream come true

[00:42:19] we go I go up to pay in the ladies like that'll be seventy three dollars like what she goes well he's got two pounds he's a pound he's still not paid attention so we go sit down he looks over my

[00:42:31] training goes why do I have so much more meat than you do that's because you order two pounds of meat my holy discontent is it really with Greg and it's not really with the hard eight it's that we

[00:42:44] ate all of it oh wow and that night I had the meat sweats and the meat dreams and it was a very very difficult evening in the holiday and express where I was staying yeah so my holy discontent

[00:42:55] is with my own gorging on far too much smoke brisket but it was delicious and I can see why you recommended that place but I I would need a triple bypass if I ever did that again that's impressive

[00:43:09] that he ate a pound of sausage and a pound of brisket he gave me it like once a little piece of his brisket so maybe he was down to three quarters of a pound but and afterwards I said if you

[00:43:20] like you need dessert you said I feel like I need surgery so that's for a little bit funny that is so much for me okay my here's my holy discontent and

[00:43:31] Ryan I'm gonna I'm almost yielding it to you because I was here's my deal I was so excited when I heard that the rock was coming back to WDWD oh you just saw mine and well okay well I'm

[00:43:44] this is because I'm just gonna teet up for you and that's a tag team yeah it's a tag team yeah and not only was I excited that the rock was coming back but I'm also a little bit done with

[00:43:54] the bloodline and all those guys in that whole storyline then all of a sudden I turn around and the rock is now a villain help me understand why what happened and if there's if I should just be

[00:44:08] frustrated about it or if there's a silver line you should be frustrated yeah you should be frustrated and I'll tell you exactly what happened and I've been on the show like ten times and I always

[00:44:18] forget that I'm supposed to be mad about something at the end so I just thought of it and what I thought of it's exactly what you're talking about there's a reason why the rock is a bad guy now and

[00:44:32] it's because of all the cry babies out there the Cody cry babies as the rock has cleaned it so what has happened is a year ago Roman Reigns B. Cody Rhodes in the main event of Russell

[00:44:50] Mania they did that took like build up Cody what they call in the business is he build heat and then he can't get over the hump can't get over the hump all odds are against him

[00:45:05] well everybody because wrestling is fake they book the story lines in their own head well everybody booked in their own head that while Cody's gonna beat him next year at Russell Mania

[00:45:19] it'll be a year long storyline he has to jump through all these hurdles and he finally does it the good guy finally gets over the top and ends Roman Reigns thousand plus day run as the world champion

[00:45:36] well that's what everybody thought in their head little did they know at the rock was gonna come back and the rock was gonna fight Roman Reigns in a different minute on the story no I asked the question it's just it's just the fact that this guy

[00:45:55] came back and he pushed all those other plans to the side and the people went crazy they they expressed their displeasure they were booing they're booing the rock they're booing you know

[00:46:08] the guys the Hollywood star and they're booing the guy yeah and WWE panic and I don't think they know exactly what they're doing yet so they absolutely panic and we're not getting Roman

[00:46:22] against the rock anymore and honestly I don't know what we're gonna get I have no idea what we're gonna get but it's terrible because this has been a four year long story with Roman and rock

[00:46:37] and they came into Cody they came into the little pride baby shit now home so there you go and in anticipation of you asking Ryan this question I actually found a sound bite from the rock talking about this very moment I've never been

[00:46:56] that great with accepting like praise this all yeah say I'm anything and you're only just content blowing off some of the moment the last eight minutes on the right point well Sam you don't know this you don't know this but

[00:47:25] we have sort of dubbed Ryan as our like WrestleMania insider is our cub reporter and other than paying for him to go which we're not doing we're counting on him we're counting on him

[00:47:40] well it's in the mail all right yeah I'm following along with it but I just think it's funny very simple much about Ryan Ryan cut it short Ryan could do a solid well he has his own podcast

[00:47:56] about wrestling so I could do an hour good stuff Sam we'll let you go thank you for chiming in from the road much appreciated we're gonna round things out with our three-minute message a really fun conversation and I apologize to everybody out there who's an NBA fan and

[00:48:39] is offended by just the general tenor of this conversation today but I did want to let you all know that I'm giving up the NBA for lent oh it's very big sacrifice yeah and actually

[00:48:50] that's not what I'm doing but I thought about it what I'm actually doing is giving up technology for the first and last hour of my day during lent for those of you that don't know Ash Wednesday

[00:49:01] was like last Wednesday so now we're in lent which is the season that leads up to Easter Sunday and the whole idea here during lent is for you to find something that you can give up

[00:49:13] so that you can create more space in your life for you to focus on things that matter like Jesus and what he did for you and the journey that he took to the cross and to the resurrection

[00:49:25] you're behalf my behalf RBF so I just want to challenge all of us to think about what might be something for you that would allow you to lean in to lent as a season and not

[00:49:40] miss it that that may mean that you need to give something up like I said in my case I'm actually not turning my phone on till I've been up for an hour in the mornings and I'm turning my phone off

[00:49:51] in my laptop off for the hour before I go to bed. I thought you were just mad at me. Now it's more sense actually it's actually been really great to have the first hour and the last

[00:50:00] hour of my day just with some space for me to think about things that actually matter. Yeah and so I just want to challenge all of us to think about what those things might be for us and

[00:50:12] there's plenty of lent devotionals out there I do this great one that by Ola University puts out and I think you can check you can just Google that and check it out if you want to or there's any

[00:50:22] number of things that you can find online. The point is to not get to Easter Sunday and have missed the whole wind up so that all it is is just another Sunday but actually take some time and create some space

[00:50:36] for you to think about Jesus and what He's done for you and what He means to you. So that's my challenge to all of us this week. If you need to give up the NBA for that I won't judge you. I totally

[00:50:47] understand but figure out what the thing might be for you and let's lean into this season together. Good stuff, good thoughts. Ryan thank you for every thought of the day much appreciated.

[00:51:00] Thank you as always man it's so much fun doing this always and in great message passage thank you so much for that too man. Absolutely appreciate you all listening make sure you check us out on the

[00:51:11] website at churchpuesports.com for every episode we've ever done and we would love it if you'd share the link with other sports fans and people of faith in your world or just people that you're

[00:51:22] trying to engage in faith centered conversations maybe this is a door opener so appreciate you listening we'll talk to you next week on churchpue sports.