Speaker 1: Joining us now to start the three o'clock hour of
Speaker 1: the program, The Great Howard Beck from The Ringer on
Speaker 1: a Thursday.
Speaker 2: Howard, Happy Thursday, sir. How are you you?
Speaker 1: I'm well, do we find do we find you? In
Speaker 1: a lovely Indianapolis, Indiana?
Speaker 2: Currently you do?
Speaker 1: I had a guy Okay, I'll tell you what on
Speaker 1: television that building looked insane.
Speaker 2: As a guy that was there. What was the atmosphere
Speaker 2: like last night?
Speaker 3: Really great? It's funny because I was having this conversation
Speaker 3: with someone, a couple people at the arena earlier to
Speaker 3: day after practice. We were just kind of, you know,
Speaker 3: chit chatting about the crowd, the intensity and all that stuff,
Speaker 3: and comparing to Oklahoma. And I will say, this is
Speaker 3: not a knock in India at all. Like it was
Speaker 3: super loud, and I think it was still like slightly
Speaker 3: less loud than Oklahoma at its peak because the thunder
Speaker 3: crowd is just incredible, man Like, it just never lets up.
Speaker 3: It's ear splitting and listen. I was at a bunch
Speaker 3: of playoff games at Madison Square Garden this spring, and
Speaker 3: it's always out of the garden, even even in bad times,
Speaker 3: it's always out of the Garden. I don't think that
Speaker 3: anybody can, like for my limited movement around the league
Speaker 3: the last couple of years that don't travel nearly as
Speaker 3: much as I used to. I think Oklahoma is the
Speaker 3: loudest arena and it's the one place like I walk
Speaker 3: out of thinking like I don't know if like my
Speaker 3: hearing might be damaged, right, Like maybe I should have
Speaker 3: worn ear plugs. So but the Pacers fans last night
Speaker 3: like dished it out just as well. Maybe not the
Speaker 3: same decibel level, but it was. It was raucous there
Speaker 3: and like they're just you know, the Pacers are are
Speaker 3: are every turn, are surprising everybody, and you know obviously
Speaker 3: they're related here.
Speaker 1: Since you brought up Madison Square Garden, Howard Penny for
Speaker 1: your thoughts, A bit of a non sequitor.
Speaker 2: We'll get back to the finals, of course. Yeah, but
Speaker 2: look like my.
Speaker 1: Whole thing A was like, down't fire, am, but b
Speaker 1: if you do, you better have a contingency in place.
Speaker 1: Emi Udoka, Jason Kidd, Chris Finch, Quinn Snyder, Billy Donovan,
Speaker 1: Oh for five, I mean you can't like this is
Speaker 1: truth is stranger than fiction.
Speaker 2: Stuff with this moron who owns the team.
Speaker 1: So give me your thoughts on what they're doing and
Speaker 1: who do you think ultimately gets that job.
Speaker 3: Speacoming like performance art. I said this last night on
Speaker 3: Blue Sky, where like I'm wondering if they're just are
Speaker 3: the next trolling us the audience? They are they trolling
Speaker 3: their own owners, the front office, trolling Dolan for being
Speaker 3: the one who probably arguably is the one who fired Tibbs,
Speaker 3: like maybe over some frontfous objections, like like what is
Speaker 3: going on here? Listen, Like you and I collectively have
Speaker 3: seen a lot a lot of stuff at the garden,
Speaker 3: a lot of weird things, a lot of things that
Speaker 3: have not happened anywhere else. But I've been doing this
Speaker 3: for twenty eight years covering the league, and I've never
Speaker 3: seen a team be shot down. What do we have
Speaker 3: to four?
Speaker 2: Five? Five teams?
Speaker 3: Five teams? Don't I don't understand this. Forget the whole
Speaker 3: tips thing for a minute. Forget whether or not they
Speaker 3: should have had somebody lined up. If you're going to
Speaker 3: fire a coach with that resume, you better have a
Speaker 3: better one in mind. Blah blah blah. That's all fine,
Speaker 3: even if this has just been like your your garden
Speaker 3: variety average. We fired a coach and we need to
Speaker 3: high replacement, and we're doing our due diligence. I don't
Speaker 3: recall anybody's due diligence involving trying to pry loose five
Speaker 3: different coaches who are already under contract and being turned
Speaker 3: down by them. It doesn't look great on a number
Speaker 3: of levels. It starts to feel kind of comical and desperate.
Speaker 3: They're being mocked by Charles Barkley, They're being mocked by
Speaker 3: Kevin Garnett, so that, you know, after years of building
Speaker 3: their esteem back up, building their respectability back up, they're
Speaker 3: now starting to look like the the you know, weird
Speaker 3: old nicks of just flailing around. So it's a bad
Speaker 3: look in that regard. The other thing is like which
Speaker 3: aren't let out of their contracts very often in this league,
Speaker 3: Like it happened with Doc Rivers once upon a time,
Speaker 3: going from Boston to the to the Clippers, And there
Speaker 3: was another one within the last like seven eight years.
Speaker 3: Who am I? Who am I thinking of? But it's
Speaker 3: I mean, Jason Kidd went to the Bucks from the
Speaker 3: Nets with some draft compensation. But it just doesn't happen
Speaker 3: very often. It's like a once every seven to ten
Speaker 3: years kind of thing. And to think that you're just
Speaker 3: going to like start to probably loose every coach who
Speaker 3: you you have an interest in, only to be shot down.
Speaker 3: It just it just looks bad. And then eventually you're
Speaker 3: gonna hire somebody like let's say it's Taylor Jenkins or
Speaker 3: Mike Brown, and one of the questions that the press
Speaker 3: conference is going to be, Hey Mike, you know, all
Speaker 3: due respect, Hey Taylor, I'll do respect. But you know
Speaker 3: there were reports that the next tried to get Jason Kidd,
Speaker 3: Chris Finch, emy U Doka, on and on and on.
Speaker 3: First like it you you like when you finally said
Speaker 3: all on, a coach is going to look like he
Speaker 3: was like your tenth choice. And you know there's some
Speaker 3: really good co which is available right now who are
Speaker 3: not under contract, who you don't have to get permission for. Like,
Speaker 3: what are you doing? I'm I'm absolutely baffled by it.
Speaker 3: I have no good explanation for it.
Speaker 2: Yeah, because it doesn't exist.
Speaker 1: I mean outside of the idiot who owns the team,
Speaker 1: because this is the deal with him and has been
Speaker 1: for twenty five freaking years. Somebody I trust back there
Speaker 1: sent me a text earlier that said, Mike Brown's getting
Speaker 1: the job, and if he does, that's just kind of
Speaker 1: like okay, like you know, like it's I don't know
Speaker 1: that Mike's a bad coach. You know, obviously he's had
Speaker 1: stops in multiple places that have had mixed results. But
Speaker 1: if it is Mike Brown, what's the reaction to nick
Speaker 1: fans waiting to see who's next?
Speaker 3: Yeah, I mean, I'm not gonna try to predict how
Speaker 3: fans are gonna react to it to a hypothetical because
Speaker 3: we just we just don't know. I don't I don't
Speaker 3: know who it's going to be at this stage. Mike
Speaker 3: Brown's done some really good work. Mike Brown did not
Speaker 3: deserve to be fired by the Sacramento Chichu. Yeah, Taylor Jenkins,
Speaker 3: I thought did a great job with Memphis, And you know,
Speaker 3: I I I understand in that case, like I had
Speaker 3: heard some things about you know, you know, relations with
Speaker 3: the locker room blah blah blah, and like he's a
Speaker 3: little like TIBs, little old school like and after a
Speaker 3: while you might wear out, you know, you know, your
Speaker 3: voice might wear on your players, like that happens. And
Speaker 3: I think Michael Malone had some of that too in Denver.
Speaker 3: But you know, you get a new locker room and
Speaker 3: then guys who haven't you know, heard you before, and
Speaker 3: you get a fresh start. And like I think Taylor
Speaker 3: Jenkins Mike Brown could both be great for the for
Speaker 3: the next Michael Malone could two, but I just don't
Speaker 3: think that they're going to go down that road, considering
Speaker 3: that Malone's issues with the Nuggets front office are very
Speaker 3: parallel to things I've heard about TIBs in the front office.
Speaker 3: So there are good options. The good news is for
Speaker 3: the next there are good options, and there are good
Speaker 3: options who are free agents and that you don't need
Speaker 3: permission for, and we'll see where it goes.
Speaker 1: All right back to the finals, let's see. So for
Speaker 1: Game three, we'll get to the Halliburton stuff in a minute.
Speaker 1: And the piece that you wrote, which was very good
Speaker 1: because it always is, But I'm just gonna ask you,
Speaker 1: thirty thousand foot of view, what are the main differences
Speaker 1: between Game three and Game two?
Speaker 3: You know, it's like these are like little microscopic things
Speaker 3: at this stage, Like I just the thunder just didn't
Speaker 3: look as sharp for whatever reason last night, and I
Speaker 3: know that they're a team that likes to play at
Speaker 3: pace also, But I do wonder if the Pacers are
Speaker 3: starting to wear them down, because the Pacers just love
Speaker 3: to fly around, not just up and down the court,
Speaker 3: but like you know, they're going to move the ball
Speaker 3: aton within the half court and you have to expend
Speaker 3: a lot of energy to keep catching up to the ball,
Speaker 3: and so I just wonder if there was a little
Speaker 3: bit of that. I don't know that there's any grand
Speaker 3: conclusion to draw from last night's game. I just think
Speaker 3: that the Pacers continually show us that there is a
Speaker 3: lot of fight there and a lot of dimensions to
Speaker 3: their offense because you know, they don't necessarily have dominant
Speaker 3: individual scorers. They attack as a unit, and it's a
Speaker 3: very challenging thing to deal with night in night out.
Speaker 1: What stands out most about Rick Carlile's coaching job throughout
Speaker 1: the course of not just this finals run, but throughout
Speaker 1: the course of the postseason, and then quite frankly, if
Speaker 1: we go back to January, you know, these are the
Speaker 1: two best teams in the league. Since January, o case,
Speaker 1: he has won Indiana's two and Rick, you know, won
Speaker 1: a really odd championship in twenty eleven with the MAVs
Speaker 1: against the Heat, and I don't think very many people
Speaker 1: thought he was going to do that. He was doing
Speaker 1: a good job with the Pistons before they decided to
Speaker 1: get rid of him and bring in Larry Brown. So
Speaker 1: it's not like this is the first time that we've
Speaker 1: opened our eyes that he can really coach.
Speaker 2: But this has been a masterclass.
Speaker 1: What stands out most about his approach, his communication, whatever
Speaker 1: it is to you, A lot of it's.
Speaker 3: Just his evolution. I think he was always regarded as
Speaker 3: as kind of, you know, you know, old school, kind
Speaker 3: of controlling coach, and you know, he really empowered Jason
Speaker 3: Kidd quite a bit batter in the day with the Mavericks,
Speaker 3: and in this case, like he's running an offense now
Speaker 3: that like, I think there's some echoes of the two
Speaker 3: thousand or late mid to late two thousand Phoenix Suns
Speaker 3: where Halliburton is kind of like Steve Nash, a version
Speaker 3: of where you know, he's you know, they're gonna fly
Speaker 3: up the court. He's going to move the ball quickly,
Speaker 3: just as Nash did. It's going to move around. There's
Speaker 3: a lot of improvisation to it that these are not
Speaker 3: you know a lot of set play calls. And I
Speaker 3: think Rick, you know, as a guy who you know
Speaker 3: obviously has been at this for decades, I think he's
Speaker 3: given up a lot of control over time and just
Speaker 3: trusted his players and especially his his point guards, you know,
Speaker 3: kid in Dallas, Tyre's Halliburton now Luca and Dallas. I
Speaker 3: know that things didn't end well with the two of them,
Speaker 3: you know, per the reporting at the time, but I
Speaker 3: think he's learned to just really adapt to his players
Speaker 3: and to this this generation of players.
Speaker 1: So are you willing to say that you think Indiana
Speaker 1: can win the championship? I mean, Vegas still favors OKAC,
Speaker 1: I like most of the free world picked OKC in five.
Speaker 2: Obviously that's not going to happen.
Speaker 1: And while I'll continue to say the same thing to
Speaker 1: me at the risk of sounded like a broken record,
Speaker 1: I will never cheer for the Indiana Patiers. But I
Speaker 1: am so wildly impressed at their ability to continue to
Speaker 1: find ways to get this thing done. But do you
Speaker 1: think they can actually do it? Can they get two
Speaker 1: more wins and win the championship?
Speaker 3: Yeah? I don't think we should doubt that now. I
Speaker 3: mean they still Game one with one of their wild flurries,
Speaker 3: right like, we're just you, We're never going away. We're
Speaker 3: going to stay, stay at stay in it, and wait
Speaker 3: for Halliburton to hit a miracle shot. And he's done
Speaker 3: it so many times this postseason. But you walk away
Speaker 3: from that game thinking, wow, like they really truly stole one.
Speaker 3: They get thumped in game two, which is kind of
Speaker 3: what everybody expected, and then they come home and I
Speaker 3: think for most of us who have just seen a
Speaker 3: talent gap between these teams, figured, okay, Thunder will take
Speaker 3: back home court in game three. You know they'll they'll
Speaker 3: win the road game, take back home court advantage, and
Speaker 3: things will start to go more to form, and the
Speaker 3: you know, Thunder and five will still be on the
Speaker 3: table as all of us had predicted those are. You know,
Speaker 3: it was a a definitive win last night, right, like
Speaker 3: they didn't like thump them. It wasn't a route or anything,
Speaker 3: but like they it was a it was a convincing
Speaker 3: victory for the Pacers. And at this point, it's, you know,
Speaker 3: at two to one, with another home game coming up
Speaker 3: tomorrow night, Like we'd be foolish to dismiss the possibility
Speaker 3: of the Pacers winning this series. That said, if the
Speaker 3: Thunder win tomorrow night, now it's two two, they've taken
Speaker 3: back home court advantage, it becomes the best of three
Speaker 3: series with two of the three in Oklahoma. The Pacers
Speaker 3: clearly can win anywhere, like they've won road games, important
Speaker 3: road games, you know, every round. But I do think
Speaker 3: a Thunder win tomorrow, depending on, you know, like how
Speaker 3: convincing of a win it is, will probably cause everybody
Speaker 3: to shift back towards them again if they weren't already.
Speaker 3: And you know, we're always prisoners of the moment. We
Speaker 3: always overreacted to the last thing we saw for sure.
Speaker 2: For sure.
Speaker 1: Now you wrote about Halliburton and the discussions and narratives
Speaker 1: surrounding him, quite frankly all postseason long have been a
Speaker 1: little bit exhausting, and you pointed out the Nash comparison.
Speaker 1: He's just more Nash Er Chris Paul than he is
Speaker 1: Kobe Bryant or Michael Jordan or quite frankly, SGA who
Speaker 1: has Rix said after Game two, you can just kind
Speaker 1: of mark in his thirty thirty four or whatever. Last
Speaker 1: night was it just more a concerted effort from him
Speaker 1: right out of the gates was a different coverage from OKAC,
Speaker 1: and then your thoughts on what he means to Indiana
Speaker 1: that's just different than what SGA means to Oka.
Speaker 2: See.
Speaker 1: I understand the comp because there are the two stars
Speaker 1: on both sides, but I just think it's a failure
Speaker 1: to see the forest through the trees and a misunderstanding
Speaker 1: of what Halliburton means to them juxtaposed to what SGA
Speaker 1: means to OKAC. Because, as you pointed out earlier, and
Speaker 1: Rick said again, last night, we need everybody, and last
Speaker 1: night they got everybody.
Speaker 2: But certainly ty Reese is the head of the snake.
Speaker 3: Yeah. I mean, look, these are not perfect analogies, but
Speaker 3: you know, if you had seen Chris Paul dueling James
Speaker 3: Harden or Chris Paul against Russell Westbrook, and you know,
Speaker 3: in their relative primes, and granted there's a little bit
Speaker 3: of a generation gap there, but they they had a
Speaker 3: lot of overlapping years. You'd see Westbrook putting up these
Speaker 3: monster numbers and you'd see Chris Paul going for like,
Speaker 3: you know, fourteen points and twelve assists or something, and
Speaker 3: you know, at a glance, you'd say, well, Westbrook must
Speaker 3: be the better player. Look at all these numbers he's
Speaker 3: putting up, but Chris Paul was absolutely the better point guard.
Speaker 3: And you know, you could cite Steve Nash or rajah
Speaker 3: on Rondo or Jason Kidd, like there have been plenty
Speaker 3: of great point guards who control the game with their
Speaker 3: passing and their intellect and not so much and their
Speaker 3: ability to just kind of bend the defense, but not
Speaker 3: so much they're scoring. And that's Halliburton. And so I
Speaker 3: think it's hard for people to process, even though we've
Speaker 3: got all these other kind of versions of this over
Speaker 3: the years. I think people see a guy like Halliburton
Speaker 3: and like, sometimes the scoring is there and sometimes it's not.
Speaker 3: And the fact is, look too in Game two, when
Speaker 3: he struggled, it wasn't just that he wasn't scoring. He
Speaker 3: you know, he finished with seventeen points, but most that
Speaker 3: came in the fourth quarter after the game was out
Speaker 3: of reach. It's also that his like assistant turnover ratio
Speaker 3: was like six to five, which that's not controlling the game.
Speaker 3: And he's he's at his best when he is, you know,
Speaker 3: you know, making quick passes, quick decisions, getting his teammates going.
Speaker 3: And I just I think he just couldn't quite figure
Speaker 3: out where to attack, whether through the pass or through
Speaker 3: the shot. In Game two and last night it just
Speaker 3: looked like he found some gaps and took advantage of,
Speaker 3: you know, the way the thunder were playing him. I think,
Speaker 3: you know, I think the centers were in drop and
Speaker 3: I think he was finding like there was that room
Speaker 3: to operate between the arc and the paint a little bit.
Speaker 3: Then he made some shots and I think that got
Speaker 3: him going as well. You know, it was just I
Speaker 3: think a really just it's kind of surgical performance by him,
Speaker 3: and you know, got pretty damn close to a triple level.
Speaker 1: Now it's on Mark Dagnault as to whether or not
Speaker 1: he wants to adjust rotations or coverages. And the effect
Speaker 1: of the matter is Oklahoma City has still outscored Indiana
Speaker 1: throughout the course of the series, and they've had the
Speaker 1: lead far more. But ultimately, the scoreboard says what it
Speaker 1: says in two to one, and honestly, and I.
Speaker 2: Could be completely wrong.
Speaker 1: I mean I've been wrong a lot throughout the course
Speaker 1: of the postseason. I thought Boston would be New York
Speaker 1: and five, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera. But even
Speaker 1: if they go down three to one, I'm not sure
Speaker 1: that I will be convinced that Indiana can do this
Speaker 1: until it's actually done. But tomorrow night Okase loses, that
Speaker 1: just makes this mountain ten times higher. They are plus
Speaker 1: I think seven in a very small truncated space when
Speaker 1: Chet and Hartenstein play together, but that's been something that
Speaker 1: Dagnault has decided not to do as he's starting Case
Speaker 1: and Wallace.
Speaker 2: So as we move over tomorrow.
Speaker 1: Are you expecting Okase to shift anything or are they
Speaker 1: just going to say, look, we're going to keep doing
Speaker 1: what we've been doing because we've been historically great most
Speaker 1: of the season.
Speaker 3: That's a great question. I don't know. I don't like
Speaker 3: there's they already changed, you know, the lineup to start
Speaker 3: the series, and they've they've kind of, you can say,
Speaker 3: stubbornly stuck with it or confidently stuck with it. They
Speaker 3: haven't played a lot of double big like they did
Speaker 3: a little bit last night. I don't have the plus
Speaker 3: minus stuff in front of me. Maybe you do, but
Speaker 3: like you know, it seems like they're more comfortable now
Speaker 3: in this series going with the single big and I'm
Speaker 3: not sure. I'm not sure you know, do you pull
Speaker 3: another lever at this stage? Does that seem panicky? Or
Speaker 3: do you do you feel like you know what? We
Speaker 3: had Game one in hand but lost it. We we
Speaker 3: won Game two definitively. Game three was fairly close. We've
Speaker 3: we've done fine with our scheme and our our rotation.
Speaker 3: Do we just kind of stick with it and and
Speaker 3: counted a better outcome because we've got the better talent?
Speaker 3: Like it seems like Dagnad kind of likes what he's
Speaker 3: doing right now, and I would. My guess is he
Speaker 3: would stick with what he's got, with what he's been doing.
Speaker 3: But I don't know. I don't know.
Speaker 1: Last question, and I realize I'm putting the cart way
Speaker 1: ahead of the horse. Okay, I want to let you
Speaker 1: know that I know what I'm about to do before
Speaker 1: I'm about to do it. But if Indiana does this,
Speaker 1: if Indiana actually pulls this off, and you look at
Speaker 1: the bulk of their rotation with Halliburton at twenty five,
Speaker 1: Matherin who was awesome last night at twenty two, TJ's
Speaker 1: thirty three, certainly he's up there. Nemhart's twenty five, Nie
Speaker 1: Smith is twenty five. Shepherd's twenty three, Siakam is thirty one,
Speaker 1: but even Toppin is twenty nine. Miles Turner should not
Speaker 1: be twenty nine. I feel like he should be forty five.
Speaker 1: He's been around forever. But the bulk of this rotation
Speaker 1: is either in the prime of their career or just entering.
Speaker 2: Is it safe to say or it's not safe to say?
Speaker 1: Is there anything here where if they can actually get
Speaker 1: that done with Boston in flux New York. Clearly they
Speaker 1: don't know what they're doing as far as this coaching search,
Speaker 1: and there's some other teams we can throw in the mix.
Speaker 1: But is there a chance that Indiana might be the
Speaker 1: class of the East at least for a little while
Speaker 1: if they actually pull this off?
Speaker 3: I feel like there is. It's not just that it's
Speaker 3: a stretch to like start jumping ahead about them winning
Speaker 3: the championship, but more like I just think that we're
Speaker 3: in a time in the NBA where like nobody can
Speaker 3: sustain anything for very long.
Speaker 2: You know.
Speaker 3: I know, the thunder certainly feel like they're built that way.
Speaker 3: The Pacers, as you just laid out, seem to be
Speaker 3: built to last for a while. Things just change so
Speaker 3: fast in this league. And like, yeah, we're about to
Speaker 3: get what's you know, more or less a gap year
Speaker 3: from the Celtics, right, you know, they win a championship,
Speaker 3: they fall short this time. Tatum's out for a year
Speaker 3: with the Achilles, And like, I think it's safe to
Speaker 3: say that the East next season is going to feel
Speaker 3: wide open on October twenty fourth or whatever opening night is.
Speaker 3: But a lot of it's going to depend on, like,
Speaker 3: you know, all right, what do the next do with
Speaker 3: their coaching search? And do they you know, do they
Speaker 3: hold onto this core? Do they make some adjustments? Is
Speaker 3: Cleveland holding on to its its primary cores? Does Orlando
Speaker 3: finally get a point guard to go with their two stars?
Speaker 3: And could that launch them into the mix in the East?
Speaker 3: Is Yanna staying because it's starting to feel like maybe
Speaker 3: he's staying. I mean it's been a lot of weeks
Speaker 3: have gone by without a trade demand or anything, and
Speaker 3: no substantial chatter about an actual trade. Like maybe he's staying.
Speaker 3: I don't know that that puts you on or puts
Speaker 3: the Bucks in the mix. But like, Okay, what moves
Speaker 3: are they making? Can they are they rebuilding on the fly?
Speaker 3: Can they do enough quickly enough to be in the
Speaker 3: mix there and the Pacers win or lose, I don't
Speaker 3: care either way. At this point, they're definitely they're definitely
Speaker 3: the favorites in the East going in next season. I think,
Speaker 3: like I just I just think that that's that has
Speaker 3: to be the case. You defer to the team that
Speaker 3: just won the damn conference and so championship or no championship,
Speaker 3: the Pacers deserve to be the favorites in the East
Speaker 3: on opening night. But again, we have a lot of
Speaker 3: off season to go and and teams are gonna make moves.
Speaker 1: All right, Howard, Before I say you lose, I want
Speaker 1: you to put your Anthony Bourdaine hat. We're gonna do
Speaker 1: the Howard back parts on Known Take. You told us,
Speaker 1: okay see, you had a great breakfast spot. What's standing
Speaker 1: out about the lovely metropolis of Indianapolis.
Speaker 3: Actually, I want to go back to okay see for
Speaker 3: a second. I would I would just want to tell
Speaker 3: you and your listeners I had a phenomenal Laosian meal
Speaker 3: at dinner place called Ma der Lao. It's like it's
Speaker 3: you know, it's it's you know, obviously Laos close to Thailand,
Speaker 3: So like that kind of of of flavor. Incredible. I
Speaker 3: know that is the last thing anybody would have expected
Speaker 3: about Oklahoma City, but phenomenal Laosian food I have. We
Speaker 3: just got here, so like I and I got here
Speaker 3: late the on the off night, so I've had a
Speaker 3: press room meal, which you know, there's nothing to talk
Speaker 3: about there, and of course our one off night where
Speaker 3: I did get dinner. My my editor took us all
Speaker 3: to Saint Elmo's, which is the least creative response I
Speaker 3: could give you, because Saint Elmo's, for anybody who doesn't know,
Speaker 3: is just at an absolute institution in Indianapolis. You know steakhouse.
Speaker 3: They're famous for their shrimp cocktail and their shrimp cocktail sauce,
Speaker 3: great meal. But it is the least interesting answer that
Speaker 3: I could give you. I do not know where I'm
Speaker 3: going yet tonight, so maybe I'll have a better answer
Speaker 3: next time we speak.
Speaker 1: Media member, you would most like to see what entry
Speaker 1: in a restaurant and media member that would cause you
Speaker 1: to turn around and walk out outside the door.
Speaker 2: Nope, not going No, but that laugh indicated that you
Speaker 2: had a name. That laugh indicated you've had a name
Speaker 2: that entered your head.
Speaker 3: Howard.
Speaker 2: That's all I'm saying I'm not.
Speaker 3: I'm just not going to start, you know, like stirring
Speaker 3: it up with my media brethren at this stage. It's
Speaker 3: just that seems unwise.
Speaker 2: Porter.
Speaker 1: Let Dave mcmannimon know that Howard Beck hates him when
Speaker 1: when we have him on this week, I can't.
Speaker 3: I haven't seen him the entire finals. I don't know
Speaker 3: where he is. I mean, there's this. I mean, you
Speaker 3: guys already know this much. If I see Mannix, I'm going.
Speaker 2: The other direct for sure. That's for sure. That's all
Speaker 2: of us. So that's a consensus.
Speaker 1: All right, my friend, We'll set you loose, safe travels,
Speaker 1: enjoy the rest of the finals, but chat soon.
Speaker 2: Okay, that's good.
Speaker 1: Thanks, all right, the great Howard Beck from The Ringer.
Speaker 1: I always appreciate his time covers the NBA for The Ringer.
Speaker 1: After a stop at the New York Times, LA Times,
Speaker 1: he covered the Lakers the Knicks.
Speaker 2: He's been doing it at a high level for a
Speaker 2: long long time now.
Speaker 1: And Howard stops by today courtesy of our good friends
Speaker 1: at all Poly Sports.
Speaker 2: It's their Rising Stars Camp.
Speaker 1: It's coming up June the seventeenth through the eighteenth at
Speaker 1: Lone Peak Park one oh one four zero South, seven
Speaker 1: hundred East and Sandy full padded full contact camp camp,
Speaker 1: but you must provide your own equipment helmet, shoulder pads
Speaker 1: and pads, tin strap, mouthguard, jersey and cleats. Your camp
Speaker 1: fee does not include lodging, meals, football equipment, or transportation,
Speaker 1: and due to NCAA rules, reduced to your scholarships are
Speaker 1: not available. All poly sports is non refundable. Register for
Speaker 1: the Rising Stars camp if you are currently in grades
Speaker 1: six through the eighth. More more information can be found
Speaker 1: at allpolysports dot com