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00:00And one of the things that we've been talking about,
00:03I was already excited to dive in on this,
00:05but I really want to dive in as much as possible tonight
00:09before we talk to Steve tomorrow,
00:10is to check out portions as much as I can
00:13of this Court of Gold documentary
00:16that just landed this week on Netflix.
00:19And it is about the Team USA's gold medal victory
00:22in the Olympics.
00:24And there's a clip that's running around online right now,
00:28and we have no issue sharing it with you right now,
00:32because I had told you about it earlier,
00:34but I didn't have the direct quote,
00:35and then it just came across our feet again.
00:37It is unbelievable.
00:39They've got the guys all mic'd up.
00:41So you get a mic'd up moment
00:44after Steph wins that gold medal,
00:47and he's coming off the court,
00:49and he and Steve Kerr embrace.
00:51There is a hug there,
00:52and it's as loud as can be, but they're mic'd up.
00:55So you get the mic'd up,
00:57what Steve Kerr whispers into Steph Curry's ear
01:01as that gold medal had been achieved.
01:04And he literally says to him,
01:06essentially, and I'm gonna paraphrase just a little bit,
01:09but it's, oh my God, I am so bleeping lucky
01:14to be a part of your life.
01:16And then they almost kind of like,
01:19there's an exchange, and he's about to walk away,
01:21and he re-embraces again.
01:24And he goes, you're the finest human being
01:27I've ever met in my entire life, and I mean that.
01:32Steve Kerr says that to Steph Curry in France.
01:35Wow!
01:38I mean, these two people,
01:40and all the people Steve Kerr has encountered
01:43and met through the years,
01:46like that was what he said to Steph Curry.
01:48And what's cool is before he brings it back in,
01:51Steph just says, thanks, coach,
01:53and it's a heartfelt like, thank you, coach.
01:56Thanks.
01:57Yeah, and in that moment,
01:59Steph had just not only saved the team and saved the gold,
02:03but saved Steve Kerr from a certain amount of criticism,
02:08because if you're the USA basketball team,
02:11you win gold, and when you don't win gold,
02:14it's an absolute outrage.
02:15And when you don't win gold,
02:17it's either because 1972, you get cheated by Russian refs,
02:23or it's 19, I guess it would have been 96 or 00
02:28when we went back to not having the dream team,
02:31and then we had to bring out the redeem team.
02:34And then even since then, the world has caught up to us,
02:37and you watch these Olympics,
02:39and everyone wants to remember Steph and talk about,
02:42oh, if Steph can play like he did in the Olympics,
02:44then we're gonna be fine.
02:45Well, Steph had two good games in the Olympics.
02:48If you watched all the Olympics,
02:50he wasn't very good until he got to the semis,
02:53and then in the finals,
02:54if you watch him against South Sudan,
02:57where the US barely won a game
02:59that was like a one or two point game,
03:01he was bad, they all were bad.
03:03And I'm sure this will show up in the doc.
03:05Yeah, no doubt.
03:06So we're gonna dive into that.
03:07I'm still struck though,
03:09and this is relevant to the conversation we're having now.
03:12And you Warrior fans, 888-957-9570,
03:15let's start talking this out.
03:17Because I was struck over the summer
03:20that even today,
03:22and I know this isn't a perfect comp,
03:24because a lot of stars were playing for different countries,
03:27and this is just one little tournament,
03:31and it's not an 82-game schedule and all of that.
03:34But very, very struck
03:36that in the midst of everything going on at age 37,
03:41and at age 40,
03:42because I'm gonna put LeBron in this too,
03:44that yes, they're still the faces of the NBA,
03:47but guess what else they are?
03:50They are still, to this day,
03:51when on the court with all of the other greats of the game,
03:55they're the alphas.
03:57They're the dogs.
03:59When we got to the end of that game against France,
04:03Kevin Durant was open,
04:05and LeBron James was open,
04:07and Steph Curry was not.
04:09And they went to Steph.
04:11They went to Steph Curry up against a double team
04:15when two of the best 15 players who have ever lived
04:20were standing open on the other side of the court.
04:24And what did Steph do?
04:26He decided to break those two defenders down
04:28and have a falling away,
04:31well behind the three-point line shot that went in
04:34so he could do the longest night-night
04:36that he's ever done before.
04:38That's relevant to the Golden State Warriors now, I think,
04:43because if we're really gonna do this,
04:45if we're all gonna dream together,
04:47Jimmy Butler's here,
04:49and now the Warriors are supposedly contenders again.
04:52Well, if that's true,
04:54then you better also believe that Steph Curry
04:59is still one of the very best players in the game.
05:05And it's easy to say,
05:05well, of course he is, Mark.
05:07No, no, no, I mean right now, right now.
05:10Do you believe that Steph Curry,
05:13this moment, is a top three player in the NBA?
05:17Well, I mean, top three, no.
05:20No? No.
05:20Who would you pick, by the way?
05:22I would take Jokic.
05:24Jokic is gonna be the first name that comes out.
05:26I would take Shea Gildas-Alexander.
05:29Interesting.
05:29And even if you wanna just forget the top whatever,
05:34can Steph be a player who can take over a game?
05:37Yes, he can. Yes.
05:38And LeBron can, and KD can, and Shea can,
05:43and Edwards can, and I mean, even Ja can.
05:45Like all these players, if you wanna look at,
05:48can X player take over a game?
05:50Can Jason Tatum take over a game?
05:53Of course he can.
05:54And if he doesn't, well, they got Jalen,
05:56and they've got Porzingis, and they've got Holiday,
05:59and they've got other guys who can help
06:00in case that player can't take over a game.
06:04My only issue, my only question is,
06:07can Steph do it often enough in a series
06:10to where they can actually get that done?
06:12And that's where the Jimmy Butler signing
06:14makes it a little bit easier,
06:15because if Steph has a game where
06:18he's not going to take it over,
06:19and if you look at his game log this year,
06:22it's a thing where he has a great game,
06:26and maybe another great game,
06:27and then another game that's okay,
06:30and another game that's maybe not great.
06:32He's not doing it as often as he used to do it,
06:35and that's fine.
06:36He's almost 37.
06:38He'll be 37 in a matter of a couple of weeks.
06:42Can he still do it?
06:43Yes, but he can't do it night in and night out anymore.
06:46Well, here's the thing, though.
06:49I think sometimes we do fall into the trap
06:51of when I say best player in the league,
06:54we're going to immediately go,
06:56at least to some degree, to stats.
07:00Like Giannis, for example, you brought up his name,
07:03and I bet a lot of people would.
07:04If I said, okay, give me the top three players in the NBA,
07:07and Giannis' name is gonna come up.
07:09Well, how we doing with Giannis in the playoffs recently?
07:12How we doing?
07:13How's it going?
07:15Yeah, not great.
07:16Not good, not good, and how's his health going?
07:19How's his team doing?
07:21They're very mediocre.
07:23Yeah, it's the regular season.
07:24It is, but they're very unimpressive now
07:27for an extended period of time,
07:29and I'm not here to bleep on Giannis.
07:31That's not what I'm doing right now.
07:32My point is is that I don't think who's the best
07:36or who's having the most impact always lies in stats
07:41and shooting percentages and things like that.
07:44I think of it more about what does a defense do
07:47when that person crosses half-court,
07:49and I can tell you this from watching a lot of NBA.
07:53There's a number of players this year
07:56who really, of course, gather that focus of a defense,
08:02but there's nobody.
08:04I mean, I guess maybe Jokic,
08:06but nobody is more the center focus of the defense
08:10than Steph Curry is,
08:11and I know part of that is because they have not really
08:16given another option to the defense.
08:18I understand that, but my point is is I do think
08:21that Steph is higher up on this list than we think
08:25because he is still dominating the brains
08:30of opposing defenses at the highest of levels.
08:34And I do think a lot of that, though,
08:36is because they haven't had anybody else
08:38to help him out offensively,
08:40so if you're a defense and you're facing
08:42a Jimmy Butler-less Golden State Warriors
08:45and Kaminga's not playing,
08:47then you're thinking, okay, all right, Wiggins,
08:50we dare you to go out there and shoot the ball 27 times
08:53and score 40, you won't,
08:55and then Kavon, GP2, TJD, Draymond,
09:01I mean, we can name all the names,
09:03and I'm not trying to shade these people,
09:05but without Jimmy Butler, the Warriors are easy to guard
09:09when you don't have another option.
09:12And so if you're guarding the Warriors
09:14and you've got Steph and no Jimmy Butler,
09:16it's like, okay, we're gonna double him all day
09:18and we're gonna make all the rest of these guys beat us
09:21and they most likely won't unless somebody goes
09:24on a full-on heater, especially without Kaminga.
09:27But even with Jimmy on the court,
09:29even with Jimmy on the court,
09:30and Jimmy has talked about this already,
09:33even with him on the court,
09:34I still think if you rank this based on
09:38how obsessed is the defense with that one guy,
09:41I do think Steph is still top three.
09:44I absolutely do.
09:45I think it's Steph, I think it's Jokic,
09:48and I think it's probably LeBron.
09:50You know, like I look at a guy like Jason Tatum,
09:52his stats are way better than Steph Curry's
09:54in terms of scoring and all that stuff,
09:56but if I'm battling Boston,
09:58the problem I have is the way that they surround the court
10:02with unbelievable three-point shooters.
10:04And the ball just flies around
10:06and somebody's gonna get a really good look
10:09and that person's gonna have a really good shot
10:11at knocking it down.
10:12You know what I mean?
10:13Like someone like Derek White
10:14is just a thorn in people's side.
10:16And poor Zingas, and you got Jalen Brown,
10:18and you've got Holiday,
10:19and you've got a whole cadre of other people.
10:22So this, for me, becomes a little bit
10:24like the quarterback discussion.
10:27Is Brock Purdy a top five quarterback?
10:29Well, when he's got a lot of talent around him, yes.
10:32And when he doesn't, he's not.
10:33And so Steph Curry by himself,
10:35is he still a top three player
10:38in the association individually?
10:40Well, yeah, but if you're going against Steph Curry
10:42and you don't have any other help,
10:44then he becomes much more guardable.
10:46And I'm just looking at his four games
10:48since they've had Jimmy Butler.
10:49They're three and one,
10:51and he is a positive in the plus minus.
10:54His shots are down, his percentages are up,
10:56his efficiency is up,
10:58because now he doesn't have to do
10:59all the heavy lifting anymore.
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11:14All right, we're going to go to the calls here
11:16in just a sec.
11:16888-957-9570.
11:18We had referenced a few times
11:19what Jimmy Butler said in Dubai.
11:22This is from Virgin Radio in Dubai.
11:25Okay, check this out now.
11:28I think there are a few things to take
11:29from this conversation with Jimmy Butler.
11:31My pocket's going to fill up from the taxes,
11:33but the taxes were great in Miami.
11:37But I'm so happy over there.
11:38Organization's top notch.
11:39Obviously, I get to play with Steph,
11:41so I'm a fan of him,
11:42just like 99.9% of the world.
11:47And a chance of winning the championship,
11:49what more can you ask for?
11:50And Draymond's on the team.
11:51I know, Draymond, of course.
11:52Me and Draymond get along quite well.
11:54Yeah.
11:55Play a lot of dominoes.
11:55Yeah, fun, it feels like,
11:56I mean, I feel like he's fun as well.
11:57Oh, he's the best.
11:59And you don't realize how great he is
12:01and to actually get on his team
12:03and how smart and how he'll do anything to win.
12:06And I respect that the most out of anything.
12:08It's all about winning all the time with that dude.
12:11I'm learning.
12:12Okay, so that's Jimmy Butler on Virgin Radio in Dubai.
12:15And I have a few observations.
12:17The first one that comes up,
12:19and I totally understand the honeymoon period,
12:22but the first one that comes up,
12:24remember what we were all told about Jimmy Butler
12:26for weeks leading up to the trade deadline.
12:29We had malcontent, okay?
12:32We had a report, Jimmy Butler refuses
12:36to sign an extension with the Warriors.
12:38We had a report that Steph Curry and Steve Kerr
12:41were both very concerned about his locker room fit.
12:46And then we get this 40-second clip.
12:49And I swear to you, it sounds to me
12:51like Jimmy Butler's never been happier in his life.
12:53I know, two weeks.
12:55I get it.
12:57But at the same time, I don't see how some of those reports
13:01that we got two weeks ago fit with this.
13:04There's no way that all of this was true.
13:07It just, and I believe that when you're truly happy
13:12in your surroundings, my God, you can move mountains.
13:16And he needs to.
13:17This is a mountain.
13:19This is a big mountain.
13:20But if I'm gonna believe in anything this year
13:23with the Golden State Warriors, it starts with that.
13:26It starts with that level of contentment
13:29with the people who are playing.
13:30But we've heard from many people that this is what he does.
13:33And our very own cousin Nick, Nick Friedle,
13:36who is joining Joe Spadoni in the morning all week,
13:39don't miss the morning roast with Spadoni and Friedle,
13:42he told us that this is what Jimmy does.
13:45Early on in his stint, he's gonna be very happy
13:49and everything's both hunky and dory.
13:51And there's no problem.
13:52And right now you're three and one through four games
13:55and there's no real issue.
13:56So of course he's gonna be like this.
13:59And I'm not trying to be a dismissor
14:03or be skeptical about the future
14:05because maybe this is the right fit for Jimmy.
14:07He's got a high IQ guy in Draymond
14:10and a competitor in Draymond who matches him.
14:12And he's got one of the best players
14:14in the history of the game who helps make him better.
14:17So perhaps this situation's gonna be different
14:20and better than any other one.
14:22But we do know that when Jimmy goes to a new team,
14:25this is normally the arc of what happens.
14:28It's super blissful, it's great, it's wonderful,
14:32and then you get to a point
14:33where things aren't necessarily as good.
14:35Yeah, I mean, that has been his history some of the time,
14:38not all of the time.
14:40But at minimum, like this report,
14:43Jimmy Butler refuses to sign an extension with the Warriors.
14:48Well, yeah.
14:49No.
14:49Well, until they give him 112 million.
14:51Wrong.
14:52Well, I mean, that's what the extension
14:53was always going to be.
14:54I don't know if that's the case.
14:55I mean, you know what I mean?
14:57Like, in other words,
14:58whatever the window is for Jimmy Butler,
15:00it's somewhere in that neighborhood.
15:02That's like doing the Brock Purdy thing now.
15:04Is it gonna be 60?
15:05You're gonna give him 35 million a year, Mark.
15:07I don't know.
15:08I don't know if it's gonna be 60, it's gonna be 58.
15:10I don't know, it doesn't matter.
15:12It's gonna be big.
15:13It's gonna be a big old stinking contract.
15:17Same thing for Jimmy.
15:18If anybody's gonna give it to him, it's gonna be big.
15:22Right?
15:23Right, then why would he say
15:24he didn't want to sign an extension with the Warriors?
15:26I don't believe that he did.
15:27Right, well, that was the report.
15:29Right.
15:30So wherever that came from,
15:31and we are conditioned to believe reports that come out.
15:35Right, except for reports are often agents
15:38trying to twist things a certain way.
15:40I have no doubt that Jimmy did want to go to Phoenix.
15:43I'm sure he did.
15:44And so that report probably was messaging to the Miami Heat.
15:50Like, don't you trade me to Golden State.
15:52I'm not, we're not doing that.
15:54And so you're letting Golden State know.
15:57Don't acquire me.
15:58Right.
15:59I'm not assigning anything.
16:00And then of course you get to a point where it's like,
16:02well, Phoenix is off the table.
16:04Yeah, you got one option.
16:05Yeah.
16:06And it's Golden State.
16:07So yes, I will sign an extension with Golden State.
16:08For 112 million.
16:09Yeah, exactly right.
16:10And that's fine.
16:11And I do think that that is a big part
16:13of why he won't be disgruntled.
16:14Because I think, and I don't know Jimmy Butler.
16:17I've never talked to him myself.
16:19But for me, this whole thing with Miami was about money.
16:24Miami is a winning organization.
16:26The Heat culture.
16:27And you know, it's a structure where you have
16:30maybe the longest, the second longest tenured coach
16:33in the association behind Popovich.
16:36So it's a culture that has been used to winning
16:39and you've been able to win there.
16:41And you butt heads with Pat Riley over money.
16:44So once it became clear you could get your money here,
16:47now it's easy to be like, okay, I got two and a half years
16:50with Draymond, who's a fighter and a winner.
16:53And Steph Curry, who's one of the best ever.
16:55So it's a little bit easier now to be happy
16:58in your situation.
16:58I acknowledge, for sure.
17:00And there's more to say on that clip.
17:02We'll get back to it in a second.
17:03Want to go to the phones, Larry and Lafayette
17:05on Willard and Debs.
17:06Hi Larry, thanks for calling.
17:08Well, thanks for taking the call.
17:11I think you guys are right on track
17:12with what I'm feeling.
17:13I do think Jimmy Butler is seeing things as peachy
17:17and keen to go along with Hunky and Dory.
17:21I am very worried.
17:22I'm very worried that he'll turn in a year or two.
17:26But it's a short term experiment.
17:28He is gonna help Steph get a little less attention on D.
17:32And I agree, by the way, Steph is a multi-generational
17:37talent.
17:38We haven't had anybody close since Rick Barry.
17:41And I would argue that Steph is even better.
17:44And I put him top three all time.
17:47So I don't see Bron as being as good
17:49because he's not bringing his teammates along anymore
17:52the way he used to.
17:54And, you know, Luca, we know he's got
17:57his defensive limitations.
17:59I don't think there are many people I would choose
18:01for the next two years to captain my team
18:04other than Steph Curry.
18:05Hey, Larry, can I ask you a question?
18:07Top three all time, Larry?
18:09Oh.
18:10I mean, it's not crazy.
18:11It's crazy.
18:12It's not.
18:13It's really not.
18:13Top three all time.
18:14I mean, he's like, you can do it.
18:17That's bananas.
18:18You can do anything you want with the whole top three,
18:20top six, top 10.
18:21Like he is absolutely, first of all,
18:24there's no doubt he's top 10.
18:26So to me, if someone's top 10,
18:28if you wanna make him your top three,
18:30like most people will have Michael and LeBron
18:32and then pick a third.
18:33You can make the case if you want.
18:36I can pick seven and then he might be in that group of seven
18:39and maybe it's because I'm a little bit older
18:41and I've seen basketball going back to the early days
18:45of Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and Magic and Wilt
18:49and all the rest of it.
18:50I don't wanna paint with a broad brush and judge here,
18:52but Larry does not sound to be 20 years old.
18:54Larry, how old are you?
18:56He's 61.
18:57I am 72 years old.
18:58Yeah, there you go.
18:59I'm watching everybody.
19:00You said a minute.
19:01And here's the deal.
19:02Only Steph Curry changed the game.
19:05Although I should say that Kareem changed the game.
19:07There was a time when the NBA outlawed dunking.
19:11Okay, but-
19:12Yeah, and that was actually Will Chamberlain
19:14who made them outlaw dunking, but go ahead.
19:17Well, it was a little bit,
19:19but it was all at the same time
19:20because Will was dunking for quite a while in the NBA
19:23until we had too many guys doing it.
19:26But I actually, I'm just happy that we got one,
19:31that somebody came in and gave us 12 years of excellence
19:37and promised us in 2009 that we're gonna finish this
19:40or figure this out on a tweet and then went and did it.
19:44And that's why I put him up as high as I do
19:46because he came from nothing at this franchise.
19:50Rebel LeBron has moved around and cherry-picked his teams.
19:55Even Kevin Durant, since the Warriors,
19:57has moved around to two or three super teams
20:00and they just haven't worked out.
20:02Steph has found a way to win every time he's been presented
20:05with a team that can come close.
20:07Larry, thanks, really appreciate the call.
20:10Yeah, those lists, I mean, it just becomes
20:14kind of what inspires you.
20:17And I don't think it's crazy at all to think about the fact
20:21that Steph Curry has inspired enough people
20:24to start putting him on top five lists.
20:27I don't think that's crazy, I really don't.
20:28Yeah, I mean, you can put him wherever you wanna put him.
20:31And I think if you go outside the market
20:33and you go to people who've been watching the association
20:38for a long time, I don't think that you would have
20:41a lot of people putting him in the top five.
20:43Where do you see, I've watched a lot of clips
20:45of this Court of Gold.
20:47Where do you see what some of the players say
20:49about Steph Curry?
20:50I mean, you're here-
20:51Like some of his teammates.
20:53And opponents.
20:55Like, I mean-
20:56Right, other 24 year olds.
20:58Like Nick Batum, for example.
21:00Oh yeah.
21:01Like, he sounds like, forget Michael and LeBron.
21:05Right.
21:06Steph, that's the best player who's ever lived.
21:08And I'm watching the final four minutes
21:10of the gold medal game.
21:11And yeah, Nick, you're gonna think that
21:13because he put one in your eye.
21:15He sure did.
21:15And he stuck one to Yabu Saleh.
21:17Because you know what?
21:18If you can score on Yabu Saleh,
21:21then you gotta be top three all time.
21:23I'm not gonna let you diminish this.