Speaker 1: And here's what you needed not.
Speaker 2: The NBA season is over, but the work now begins
Speaker 2: for Pacers guard Tyrese Haliburton, reports confirming today that he
Speaker 2: suffered a ruptured achilles tendon in his right leg in
Speaker 2: last night's Game seven of the NBA Finals. Reports said
Speaker 2: that he will undergo surgery for the injury later today.
Speaker 2: According to odds and bet Online, the Thunder are the
Speaker 2: favorites to repeat as NBA champions next season, sitting right
Speaker 2: now with odds of five to two. The Rockets, with
Speaker 2: the newly acquired Kevin Durant, have the second best odds
Speaker 2: at eight to one. Nuggets are hiring Ben Tanzer as
Speaker 2: the team's executive of basketball operations. They also named former
Speaker 2: Timberwolves executive John Walla, says the Nuggets executive vice president
Speaker 2: of player Personnel, and ESPN reports that Wizard swingman Chris
Speaker 2: Middleton is expected to exercise his player option with more
Speaker 2: than thirty three million dollars for next season. Aaron Judge
Speaker 2: of the Yankees continues to lead all players in voting
Speaker 2: for next month's All Star Game in Atlanta with more
Speaker 2: than two points.
Speaker 3: Broadcasting live from the ninety six nine at James studios.
Speaker 1: It's time to show in a song. Here's your host,
Speaker 1: Brandon Kravitz.
Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah, Welcome to the show. We are live on
Speaker 3: ninety six to nine, the game streaming everywhere on the
Speaker 3: iHeartRadio app. You are in the zone, the show of
Speaker 3: the Orlando Sports Fan. Your host's Brandon Kravitz here joined
Speaker 3: by my co host and producer. He is Sweet Tea
Speaker 3: Tyler Karen. Hit us up on the Mills Air text line.
Speaker 3: That's five zero eight five seven, also available on the
Speaker 3: iHeartRadio talk back. Just tap that microphone icon and let
Speaker 3: it fly. It is the first true day of the
Speaker 3: NBA offseason, even though we've already seen wheels and deals
Speaker 3: going down in the league, but first full day given
Speaker 3: the fact that there is no more NBA action on
Speaker 3: the court for a couple months now. Much to get to.
Speaker 3: On that front, we did have a big time trade
Speaker 3: this weekend. We have a low NBA team that continues
Speaker 3: to climb the odds boards. Plus our best and worst
Speaker 3: of the weekend. A lot of goodies there. Super relaxing
Speaker 3: weekend for yours. Surely was able to sit back. I
Speaker 3: consumed the full sports menu. I don't think there's anything
Speaker 3: I didn't see this weekend, which even during the high
Speaker 3: octane football season with college football on Saturday and NFL
Speaker 3: on Sunday, I feel like I'm always missing something, some
Speaker 3: little slice of the pie. But just absolutely no plans
Speaker 3: this weekend. Shout out to LSU for taking home the
Speaker 3: crown in the College World Series. Tyler. We have officially
Speaker 3: hit that part of the year where once it's noon,
Speaker 3: your plans better involve water or air conditioning because it
Speaker 3: is rough out there. So especially with a five year
Speaker 3: old at the house, I got a plan ahead. I
Speaker 3: forget that twelve o'clo kind of sneaks up on you
Speaker 3: and then all of a sudden, you know he's looking
Speaker 3: at you like we just hanging around the house all day.
Speaker 3: You've kind of run out of all the toys and
Speaker 3: the shows, and you got to come up with a plan.
Speaker 3: So this is definitely game plan season.
Speaker 4: Yeah, you got to get creative this time of year.
Speaker 4: The other angle to it as well, is you got
Speaker 4: to try to factor in that weather. Because I just
Speaker 4: mentioned to you that this weekend, I did exactly that
Speaker 4: noon hit, and I was pulside with a refresher in hand,
Speaker 4: and I got a nice little tan to show for it. However,
Speaker 4: leading up to that, in the summer months here in Florida,
Speaker 4: you never know what the weather is going to get you.
Speaker 4: You will get ten minutes of absolute beauty, followed by
Speaker 4: thirty minutes of them on soon followed by four hours
Speaker 4: of absolutely beautiful. I tried to time up my run
Speaker 4: down in South Florida over the weekend. It was a
Speaker 4: little rainy early on, like eight thirty to nine thirty,
Speaker 4: and then you know, have some coffee, sit around, talk
Speaker 4: to the fam, and all right, I'm gonna try to
Speaker 4: go and get a couple of miles in beautiful and half.
Speaker 4: I was half a mile from the house, and then
Speaker 4: the rain came and it came hard, So I did
Speaker 4: not get the three miles in I was going for.
Speaker 4: But I had one of the fastest miles I've ever
Speaker 4: run in my life because I was hauling but back
Speaker 4: to the front door. And then it seems as soon
Speaker 4: as I dry off from the rain, that's when the
Speaker 4: sun was out. That's where I give up on the run.
Speaker 4: I say, you know what I tried, and that's where
Speaker 4: you hit the pool. So you got a factor in
Speaker 4: a lot of different things this time of year, the
Speaker 4: rain doesn't slow you down. I wouldn't know this. I
Speaker 4: detest running. If you ever see me running in public,
Speaker 4: just assume that something is chasing me. I would think
Speaker 4: the rain halts the progress, even if you want to
Speaker 4: go faster. It kind of it depends. It certainly depends
Speaker 4: on what your mindset is. How hard the rain is coming.
Speaker 4: A nice little drizzle isn't really a problem. It's actually
Speaker 4: kind of refreshing opposed to the ninety five degree heat
Speaker 4: that we get this time of year. However, when it's
Speaker 4: raining that hard, then it comes to less of myself
Speaker 4: because it's impossible to stay in the runner's mindset when
Speaker 4: you're getting rain, cold rain on you. But then it's
Speaker 4: also the electronics come to mind. I run with my
Speaker 4: phone in hand, so the phone is exposed to any weather.
Speaker 4: My headphones are exposed to any weather. So that's where
Speaker 4: is it worth it to push through this? Or can
Speaker 4: I say, you know what I tried, We'll try again
Speaker 4: tomorrow and get back to the house still feel okay
Speaker 4: about myself, so and not have to hit up Best
Speaker 4: Buy or anywhere else to try to repair any damage
Speaker 4: to the electronics. So that's kind of the give and
Speaker 4: take a nice little sprinkle is actually preferable. But if
Speaker 4: it gets beyond that, then then you got to look
Speaker 4: out for things bigger than yourself.
Speaker 3: BK, I understand. I well, I wanted to really go
Speaker 3: off on a tangent here about how Tyler is a
Speaker 3: phone fumbler that is just one of his personality quirks. Yeah,
Speaker 3: I worry about you holding the phone in your hand,
Speaker 3: but we don't have time to get into.
Speaker 1: It onto game seven.
Speaker 3: It is. It's obviously unfortunate what happened to Tyrese Haliburton,
Speaker 3: and we're going to cover this in all sorts of
Speaker 3: directions throughout the course of the afternoon, but I just
Speaker 3: want to get my take on how this went down
Speaker 3: and how OKC plays into it and the championship that
Speaker 3: they won as the night went along, you look at
Speaker 3: the way that this game started. If you were of
Speaker 3: the belief that the Pacers were going to win this
Speaker 3: game with him out there, I am not going to
Speaker 3: be able to talk you out of it. I just disagree.
Speaker 3: I feel like the thunder performance that we saw in
Speaker 3: the third quarter was going to happen with or without
Speaker 3: Tyrese Halliburton. It's not like the Pacers couldn't score at all.
Speaker 3: TJ McConnell went nuclear in the third quarter. The Thunder
Speaker 3: got back to playing that swarming defense that was their
Speaker 3: trademark all season long. Eighteen points off of turnovers. They
Speaker 3: took eleven more shot attempts in the quarter, and that
Speaker 3: was the difference in the game. Now, keep in mind,
Speaker 3: and this is something that I think was completely glossed
Speaker 3: over by seemingly everybody in the NBA media going into
Speaker 3: Game seven, Tyrese Halliburton was hampered. I know that he
Speaker 3: knocked down a few threes and it looked like he
Speaker 3: was gonna have a good game, and he was certainly
Speaker 3: in empt up for it. But he was clearly limited
Speaker 3: in his full skill set, and we saw that on
Speaker 3: full display in game five when he really struggled. Then
Speaker 3: in Game six, he played well, but you could tell
Speaker 3: that he wasn't one hundred percent. Then he plays in
Speaker 3: game seven, and it wasn't even a storyline going into
Speaker 3: game six, it was is he gonna play?
Speaker 1: Is he gonna play well?
Speaker 3: I had my tiered hierarchy of how this could possibly
Speaker 3: look and how it could play for the Indiana Pacers
Speaker 3: if he plays, But doesn't play well, or if he
Speaker 3: doesn't play and it's TJ McConnell, or what if this
Speaker 3: is all just not that big of a deal and
Speaker 3: he plays great, We're breaking it all down. Then going
Speaker 3: into game seven, it was like, well, he played in
Speaker 3: game six, so he's fine.
Speaker 1: Calf strains don't just go away.
Speaker 3: So even if Tyrese Haliburton hadn't busted his achilles in
Speaker 3: the first quarter, you still didn't have a Tyrese Haliburton
Speaker 3: that was one hundred percent. I think if you wanted
Speaker 3: to play the game of if Tyrese Haliburton wasn't hurt
Speaker 3: at all, is Indiana actually a better team than OKC.
Speaker 3: I still don't think that, but it certainly looked like
Speaker 3: it was a lot closer than the perception going into
Speaker 3: this series. Either way, I think the better team was
Speaker 3: always going to win. It took them seven games to
Speaker 3: do it. You give Indiana credit for pushing them. There
Speaker 3: take nothing away from OKAC that is a worthy, rightful
Speaker 3: champion and Tyler, I think they would have won the
Speaker 3: game no matter what.
Speaker 4: Yeah, I tend to agree with you, And you know,
Speaker 4: this is where the conversation goes into the what if
Speaker 4: and You can take all of those what ifs to
Speaker 4: the grave, you can carry it with you.
Speaker 1: But at the end of the day, what is is
Speaker 1: what is.
Speaker 4: And what happened last night is what happened in the
Speaker 4: Oklahoma City Thunder are your champions. It's this team lost
Speaker 4: fourteen games in the regular season, and yes, they were
Speaker 4: tested throughout the postseason. It wasn't a cakewalk as many
Speaker 4: predicted it would be for or Oklahoma City, whether it
Speaker 4: be through the Western Conference or whether it be heading
Speaker 4: into the finals where they were one of the most
Speaker 4: lopsided finals favorites that we've seen in recent history in
Speaker 4: the NBA. Indiana was able to push them. But at
Speaker 4: the end of the day, there's a reason why the
Speaker 4: NBA has it set so this series can go to seven.
Speaker 4: It is so that the underdog still has a chance.
Speaker 4: But you want to see the most worthy champion, and
Speaker 4: in seven games, when it gets there, oftentimes the most
Speaker 4: worthy champion plays out. And to your point about ty
Speaker 4: Reeves being hampered in even Game six, it was an
Speaker 4: Indiana blowout. OKAC seemed like that they knew they had
Speaker 4: another game to play with, so they were okay with
Speaker 4: kind of packing it in and all right, well, you
Speaker 4: don't get in Indiana, you get to close it out
Speaker 4: in game seven in front of your home crowd. Tyre's
Speaker 4: Haliburton in that game, because you could see early on
Speaker 4: that he was a step slower than normal, but he
Speaker 4: was still able to kind of go through his normal motions,
Speaker 4: just maybe not to the degree that we're used to seeing.
Speaker 1: But he only played in twenty three minutes in that game,
Speaker 1: so it's.
Speaker 4: Very difficul cult to see and to say confidently that, oh,
Speaker 4: he's fine, he's back.
Speaker 1: The calf wasn't holding him back at all.
Speaker 4: He was able to play in the short stints in Indiana,
Speaker 4: got so far ahead so early that he was able
Speaker 4: to pack it in the fourth quarter of the game
Speaker 4: and not really have to be a big factor in it.
Speaker 1: Play under twenty five minutes.
Speaker 4: So if we were saying, all right, well he's good
Speaker 4: in game six, he's going to be good to go
Speaker 4: for Game seven, it was certainly something that was still
Speaker 4: lingering in the back of a lot of people's mind,
Speaker 4: and the injury is just it's unfortunate.
Speaker 1: You never want to.
Speaker 4: See anything like that for any athlete at any point
Speaker 4: throughout the season. Albeit in Game seven, of an NBA Finals,
Speaker 4: But I do believe that again if he is able
Speaker 4: to play that whole game this the writing was on
Speaker 4: the wall that Oklahoma City was going to be crown
Speaker 4: champion in Game seven.
Speaker 1: The home away splits.
Speaker 4: Although Indian was able to get some games on the
Speaker 4: road in the finals, the home away splits were just
Speaker 4: too lopsided in Okaysees. In Okayse's favor, the youth showed
Speaker 4: for the thunder throughout the playoffs. Generally, young teams are
Speaker 4: better at home, and the thunderword the prime example of that,
Speaker 4: and the home away swits numbers and okay See having
Speaker 4: some of the best home numbers through the finals and
Speaker 4: through the postseason run as a whole is a sign
Speaker 4: of that. So Indiana, it was a valiant effort. You
Speaker 4: gave us a great NBA Finals. Tyrese Haliburton to thank
Speaker 4: you for all the moments that you created along the
Speaker 4: way and even in the finals, and shout out to
Speaker 4: the entire Indiana Pacers team that has given hope to
Speaker 4: every team in the Eastern Conference heading into next season
Speaker 4: that you have a shot to get there, regardless of
Speaker 4: where you come from, regardless of how you start the
Speaker 4: season as long as you click at the right time.
Speaker 4: All in all, it was a great finals and I
Speaker 4: think that we got the best champion.
Speaker 3: Got the best champion, and I would have celebrated a
Speaker 3: Pacers championship. It would have been a lot of fun.
Speaker 3: But the NBA is that sport, that is the league
Speaker 3: where we like to see the worthy champion get crowned.
Speaker 3: And Oka se was the best team all year long.
Speaker 3: Love the fact that they got pushed, but we have
Speaker 3: the right champion at end of the year, and then
Speaker 3: they had to earn it. You know, they went to
Speaker 3: game seven against Denver, they went to a game seven
Speaker 3: here against the Indiana Pacers, but they were fantastic. Which
Speaker 3: should scare the league is that it still feels like
Speaker 3: age wise they are will ahead of schedule. You know,
Speaker 3: you look at chet Holmgren, Jalen Williams, two of their
Speaker 3: best three players. Those guys aren't even twenty five years
Speaker 3: old yet, Shake Gill just Alexander still in the thick
Speaker 3: of the early part of his prime. They aren't losing
Speaker 3: anybody in free agency that you have heard of, and
Speaker 3: they have a lottery pick that they haven't even played
Speaker 3: yet in nicoleo topich and they've got like eighteen draft
Speaker 3: picks still over the next couple of years. This team
Speaker 3: is incredibly dangerous. They're not going anywhere. The thing is, though, Tyler,
Speaker 3: you have a different champion every seven years for the
Speaker 3: last seven years. Can OKC be the team that bucks
Speaker 3: that trend? It feels like the way that they're built
Speaker 3: and given the timeline that they're on, we no longer
Speaker 3: worry about them. Are they gonna shrink in the moment whatever?
Speaker 3: They won a championship, so those questions are out the window.
Speaker 3: If you had to pick it right now, and we've
Speaker 3: got plenty of time to change our minds on this
Speaker 3: is okay, see your champion in twenty twenty six.
Speaker 4: I'm gonna say no, just because I have the luxury
Speaker 4: of taking the field and those odds are much better
Speaker 4: than just taking Oklahoma City.
Speaker 1: However they should.
Speaker 4: I believe that they are the betting favorite to win
Speaker 4: the NBA Championship next year, as they should be for
Speaker 4: all the reasons that you laid out, even being a
Speaker 4: young team throughout the postseason, even with chet Holmgren. One
Speaker 4: thing I'm surprised about in this series was there was
Speaker 4: not a Chet Holmgren game at least that I recall
Speaker 4: where Chet, where Chet was unbelievable and you're like, oh
Speaker 4: my god, this guy and this guy still.
Speaker 1: Has so much room to grow.
Speaker 3: Even I feel like it was actually game seven. I
Speaker 3: feel like that was even though you get eighteen, which
Speaker 3: doesn't it doesn't it's not even twenty, it doesn't jump
Speaker 3: off the page.
Speaker 1: It was easily the best game.
Speaker 3: Yeah yeah, I mean it looked like it came easy
Speaker 3: to but it was the five block shots and the
Speaker 3: steel that did it for me. That's what makes him
Speaker 3: so dangerous is that he can score, but he is
Speaker 3: He is a lockdown defender, defender around the rim. And
Speaker 3: I thought that was his best game.
Speaker 4: Yeah, easily his best performance coming in game seven. I
Speaker 4: just think guy as a hole. And throughout the playoffs
Speaker 4: you kind of were left wanting more from the pick,
Speaker 4: the player that was considered to be taken number one
Speaker 4: instead of Pala Banko and everything that you've seen from him,
Speaker 4: so you know, he.
Speaker 1: Still has room to grow.
Speaker 4: However, we have seen not just with Tyre Salivert and
Speaker 4: last nine, you know, injuries aside. Okay, se should be
Speaker 4: the favorite, but you just never know what can happen
Speaker 4: through the NBA regular season and through these playoffs. With
Speaker 4: all the stars that you have seen go down in
Speaker 4: this postseason alone, it just is a reminder that you
Speaker 4: truly never know what can happen in Game eighty to
Speaker 4: him beyond of the NBA season. So, yes, Okay See
Speaker 4: should be the favorite heading into next year. However, I
Speaker 4: am not so confident in them still in a loaded
Speaker 4: West that got shuffled around a little bit over the weekend,
Speaker 4: and we'll touch on that that I can confidently say
Speaker 4: that Oklahoma City is the best team heading into next
Speaker 4: season to the point where they are going to win
Speaker 4: the NBA Championship.
Speaker 3: At this point, if you had injury luck one year,
Speaker 3: it's probably going to come back and bite you in
Speaker 3: the next. Even for Indiana that was relatively healthy a
Speaker 3: year ago, made it to the Eastern Conference finals and
Speaker 3: then played all of these injury riddled teams on their
Speaker 3: way to the finals. Still it was an injury that
Speaker 3: ultimately took them out. Up next, our best and worst
Speaker 3: from the weekend. Don't miss it.