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Chapter 1: What led to the Knicks' historic comeback against the Spurs?
This is an iHeart Podcast. Guaranteed human. It's that time to put on your jersey and wave your flag, whoever you root for.
Why do I watch the World Cup? That's like asking me, why do I breathe?
and it's beautiful.
The guys are young and cute and fit.
It's not just a game.
It's your culture.
I like watching it with my dad.
It's a connecting force. From Futuro Studios, I'm Fernanda Echavarri, and this is American Football, a show about soccer culture in the U.S. and its underdog roots. Listen to American Football on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Thanks for listening to the Best of the Herd podcast.
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Chapter 2: How did OG Ananobi's last-second tip impact Knicks history?
That's not just, and listen, I'm not taking anything away from the Knicks, but this finals, and I don't think San Antonio can come back. This finals is going to be about as much about the Spurs blowing leads as As the Knicks win in games. And that's just... I mean, the Spurs have blown five playoff leads. Double-digit leads in the playoffs. That's tied for the most ever. Again, they're young.
I get it. The coach was young. I mean, they've led in the final two minutes in every game against the Knicks. And they got one win. And it was a close win. So they were just... And again, we too often blame... We do this with football coaches every week. We blame the refs or we blame the coach. It's mostly on the players. But with a young team...
With a super historically young team, they need guidance. Bonus, eight minutes left. Wemby, get to the brick. Wemby, get to the block. I'm calling a timeout. I got to get Dylan Harper a couple looks. De'Aaron Fox can't have the most touches. He's having a rough night. I mean, 30 points in the second half. And I got, I mean, I got talent.
I've got the best collection of young talent in basketball on one team. Spurs have the most young talent in the world. You can't give me 30 points in the second half. Just not good enough. It's not taking anything away from the Knicks. But you have a 27-point lead at half. You've got to coach differently. You can't be jacking up 12 threes. Here was Wemby after the loss.
holding each other accountable, communicating, not pointing fingers. And after that, we either got it or we don't. But, you know, we've proven that we can surpass these difficulties. And even though we haven't been there before, I'm convinced we're built this way and we're going to use the better of this and it's going to tighten us up.
All right, let's talk next. So I have said and gotten some pushback when people ask me the best Knicks player. And I have been saying this since the start of the playoffs. It's not Bronson. He's the best finisher. OG is their best player. I've talked to scouts and GMs about OG. I think he's the most underrated player in the league, has been perhaps in Toronto as well.
They kind of stole him from Toronto. He is classy, big. They just don't build humans that look like that. He'll D you up. He'll D your three up. He'll D your five up. He can score. He is just so unique, so good on both ends. Last night, he was magical. 33 points, 7-3, 67%. If you did not see it live, and they start these games way too late for all of us, but I just want to give you the setup.
27 down at half. First, he's got the big three to cut it to four. Then he's got the big block. And then there is this. Ananobi far sideline inbound from midcourt. Schammett, Bridges, Brunson, Towns. All it takes is a two to make history in New York City. 5.7 left. No timeouts remaining. Ananobi has handed the ball. Finds Brunson at midcourt. Launches a straight on three. Missed it short.
Tipped by Ananobi. He put it in. Ananobi put it in. The Knicks take the lead with 1.2 to go. sports gives you these moments that if you scripted them it would feel too contrived down 27 young spurs crumbling josh hart misses a dunk and one guy og from a three to a block to the hand of og a remarkable kid what a moment i mean it's like cue the chariots of fire music.
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Chapter 3: What major mistakes did the Spurs make in the second half?
They've trailed with two minutes left in every game. But it is a collection of players. None wants to take the credit. From previously flaky cat to massively undervalued Josh Hart and OG to the scrappy and great Jalen Brunson. Even after that tip, the biggest basketball shot in New York in 30 years. Listen how humble this kid is.
You just hit the game-winning shot in an NBA Finals game in front of your home crowd. How does that feel?
It feels cool. I mean, everyone's pretty excited. I'm excited, too. I'm excited, too. We're all excited. We're enjoying it right now, but we're just focused on the next game now.
He has the highest true shooting percentage of any player, any player in the Finals since 2012. 14 years. And that's his reaction. And that tip in was not easy. OK, that should be a poster in every town, home and apartment in New York City for the next decade. Just an unbelievable moment. And it's you know what?
One of the reasons this thing works, it's not just because this Knicks team is not a draft and develop team. It's a trade and acquire team. And one of the reasons it really works is that their best player, if you went to every GM in the league and said you get one Knick, I'm telling you, OG is the one the GMs talk about. In a league of three and D guys, big, strong, physical, humble players.
The reason this thing works in New York, I know y'all think it's Jalen Brunson, and he's terrific. It's OG. He's going to win the MVP. 6'8", 7'3", wingspan, can defend virtually everybody outside of the point. Rebound, tip, hit threes, blocks. There are just certain times with young athletes, you root for them.
And I remember when he got traded and reading a couple of stories when he got traded from the Raptors, and the Raptors were well run. And people are like, did they steal him? Yeah, last night. Validating, they kind of stole him.
So, you know, what's interesting about that, J-Mac, even when the Knicks were down 27 at half, it wasn't one of those where I was like, okay, I'm going to give this five minutes. I just kept thinking, okay, they've been down double figures in these games because of the youth. I mean, everybody, including the head coach, is young for San Antonio. So you get real spikes with San Antonio.
They're brilliant. I mean, the first quarter, In the first half, if they threw the ball up from three, it was going in. They just played a remarkable first half. But as a coach, you have to realize, even if you had Katie, Steph, and Clay in their prime, you don't have four quarters of brilliant three-point shooting. You know, we got to lead, guys. We're going to still be aggressive.
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Chapter 4: How did the coaching decisions affect the Spurs' performance?
That's just, that's on the staff. All right. And we're going to talk a little bit more about Wemby. People are freaking out. It's the World Cup. What are realistic expectations with the World Cup? We'll address that next. It's The Herd. Be sure to catch live editions of The Herd weekdays at noon Eastern, 9 a.m. Pacific on Fox Sports Radio, FS1, and the iHeartRadio app.
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Mainstream media is full of cruel depictions of the unhoused, stories that shame and blame and paint the unhoused as a monolith. We The Unhoused is the podcast that's changing that. I'm Theo Henderson, creator and host, and for years I've created a space where the unhoused and their advocates can tell their own stories. In the last few months alone, I've interviewed unhoused parents,
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Keith Giamonka seemed like a mild-mannered suburban dad. But secretly, he became someone else. A master of disguise who went on a crime spree. At the time, did it seem like a crazy idea?
It seemed very crazy, but I felt so desperate that I felt it was the quickest, easiest way out.
Did you allow yourself to think about how it could go wrong and what that might look like? No, I didn't want to manifest that. I was trying to manifest success. Every family has its secrets, but what happens when you discover that your dad has been living a double life? That is not the look of an innocent man.
This is going to change my life and my family dynamic forever because everything that had existed prior in my reality is now untrue. Listen to Deep Cover, The Family Man on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.
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Chapter 5: What role did Victor Wembanyama play in the game dynamics?
In the final nine and a half minutes of the fourth, he didn't have a rebound or an assist. He was minus 21. You know, it's the best way to put it. He's still beta testing the prototype, not quite ready for the market. I do think two days rest at home. I don't know what the line is. I would absolutely take San Antonio. I think they've got one last great effort.
But I think what we saw last night is what I've watched my entire life as an NBA fan, which is this league. There's a reason this was the youngest team since the 1977 Blazers, who also fell down to nothing. There's a reason older players flourish in the postseason. They can manipulate the refs. They can manipulate end-of-game scenarios.
There's a reason older coaches, the late Chuck Daly, Popovich, Kerr, and Spolstra, guys that have been around, Pat Riley, can manipulate moments. San Antonio can't. They can just be really, really good. They just don't have that gear yet. Here's another piece of sound from Wemby after the loss. What's going through your mind right now?
What's going through my mind right now, I think it's going to go one of two ways. One of two ways. And a bad one and a good one. And I know the bad one would be giving up. The good one would be getting stronger through this, getting more together. And I know this is what we're going to do.
By the way, he gets very comfortable in crucial moments settling for threes. He hit a jumper, a two-point jumper, with 3.30 left, spurs by seven. And the announcers marveled that he actually took a shot inside the arc. You shouldn't marvel at that. You should question why somebody 7'4", in a close game, lead collapsing, is shooting threes. And again, he's young.
You know, in the absence of great coaching or parenting or management, young people, we have this in college football, they make big mistakes. Coaching's never more important for a team like San Antonio or those 77 Blazers with Jack Ramsey. Like this is when you really need great coaching. Be sure to catch live editions of The Herd weekdays at noon Eastern, 9 a.m. Pacific.
Keith Giamonco seemed like a mild-mannered suburban dad, but secretly, he became someone else, a master of disguise who went on a crime spree. At the time, did it seem like a crazy idea?
It seemed very crazy.
But I felt so desperate that I felt it was the quickest, easiest way out. Did you allow yourself to think about how it could go wrong and what that might look like? No. I didn't want to manifest that. I was trying to manifest success. Every family has its secrets. But what happens when you discover that your dad has been living a double life? That is not the look of an innocent man.
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Chapter 6: How did Jalen Brunson's performance influence the series?
Bob Dylan, and I say that with love and respect for both of those actors. And I don't know how many Oscar nominations they give out. I don't know if it's five, six for best actor. 150% this kid, Jafar Jackson, should absolutely positively get nominated for his portrayal as Michael Jackson. Listen to I Am Rap Report on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.
You know, I had said this, and maybe it's too harsh, but I had said whether it was Jokic's championship in Denver or the Celtics championship or the Andrew Wiggins staff coming back to beat the Celtics title or OKC last year, there are great parts to those teams and great moments with those teams, like the defense or the bench with OKC, but they're not great teams.
And I think what I know through four games of this series is that these teams are close. Age and experience matters. Coaching's better on the Knicks side. But in that win last night, it did kind of establish the Knicks aren't a historically great team, but this is a historically great run, and there is a magic involved to this. And I thought I thought we saw I'll just start with that.
There's a connectivity between fans, team, veteran. A lot of this is IQ and situational to me. I mean, do you think this is a great roster or it's just a cohesive unit of high EQ IQ guys, all of these B2B plus level players? I think what you're saying is true, and I do think it's a terrific starting five that now has spent a second year together.
Carl Anthony Towns only won season at Kentucky, but he won there, made it to a Final Four. Jalen Brunson won two national championships. In Dallas, I thought he did really well. They have a lot of winning players. O.J. Ananobi, a terrific player, even though he didn't play much when Toronto won the championship in 2019.
And I think it's one thing to have great players, but for me, three plays stick out in this series. The Jalen Brunson offensive rebound, the tap out that he had to Mikkel Bridges, they were down one. He beats Devin Vassell to an offensive rebound, runs to the corner, Bridges finds him, Jalen hits the three, starts the 11-0 run to close out game one.
And then last night, O'Jannon will be hustling back, getting the block on De'Aaron Fox and then crashing the glass a couple of seconds later for the tap-in. So great players, but those are three hustle plays that they made. They wanted it a little bit more. And I think right now that's the difference in this series. Those little plays that teams make. I mean, if you're...
If you're San Antonio, two offensive rebounds have absolutely killed you in this series. And the way that they played last night in the second half, especially the fourth quarter, especially down the stretch, especially the last couple of seconds, awful if you're the San Antonio Spurs. Yeah, I mean, I think sometimes it's an epidemic.
Everybody, especially in talk radio, sports radio, we always pick on the coach. He's always a bum. I didn't, and I don't do that, but I did think the second half for Mitch Johnson, first of all, you can't get Wemby four minutes of rest. You had led by 20. I thought he looked totally gassed. De'Aaron Fox had the most touches. Dylan Harper didn't have a shot in the last 10 minutes.
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Chapter 7: What are the implications of this game for the NBA Finals?
Jalen takes the shot and misses. It turns out to be the perfect miss because here comes O.J. Ananove flying down the middle of the lane going untouched. If somebody was guarding him on the inbounds pass, and at least you could have prevented him, even for a split second, from having an open path to the basket, that could be the difference between winning and losing.
So these losses for the Spurs have been absolutely brutal. The Knicks, to me, come across as the smarter team in those winning moments, making the plays, and that's the difference, Colin. Jalen Brunson. First of all, Stephon Castle should have made all defense. He's a tremendous young player. He's got a 10-year run where he's going to be a multiple-time All-Star. He may make 10 All-Star teams.
So he's limited. SGA struggled. And, I mean, he takes on the number one assignment. He is a bully. He's aggressive. He was at UConn. How would you judge so far Jalen Brunson's series overall? How does it land for you? It would go the way that I thought it would go. There'd be a lot of focus on him. So he hasn't been shooting the ball great.
There've been some turnovers, but again, what he did in game one, phenomenal. What he did in game two, made that tough shot. And then what he did last night, make some huge plays down the stretch. And remember, because it's Jalen Brunson, Victor Wenbenyama is guarding him. That means Victor Wenbenyama isn't anywhere near the basket on that final play for the Knicks.
Darren Fox, who, let's face it, had one of the worst fourth quarters you're ever going to see.
Second half, really.
He comes over to help, which leaves OG open. What's the fancy words now? They talk about gravity for all these players. So he's pulling the defense toward him. So even though he missed, it reminded me a little bit. of the Marcus Smart miss against Miami a few years back when he missed it and Derek White went in there unmolested and tapped the ball in at the buzzer to win. O.J.
Ananobi's play was outstanding. His hustle play at the other end to get the block, the hustle play here. But I think overall, Jalen Brunson just makes winning plays. So is he having an all-time final? Is his team up 3-1? Yes. Frank Isola for our radio audience. Eight minutes to go, they're in the bonus, and they shoot one shot in the paint. Is that on Mitch Johnson or Wemby?
Like, when you have a 7-4 player, you're in the bonus. Guys pound the paint. San Antonio did not. Is that a coach or a Wemby issue? I think it's both, and I think it's today's NBA. You know, the Knicks have done this in the last two years in the playoffs.
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Chapter 8: What can we expect in the upcoming games of the series?
I don't remember a big basket by the Denver Nuggets in their finals. That shot last night, I mean, that is a Willis Reed moment. That's Jerry West hitting the half-court shot against the Knicks. I mean, where does it rank all time in the history of the Knicks? OG's tip, where is it? It's got to be top five, top three.
I think you're 100% right with the Willis-Reed shot because that's Willis in 1970 limping out onto the court the first time he touches the ball. He shoots, and I think, in fact, he ended up going two for two in that quarter. The crowd is going nuts. Provide a lot of inspiration for the New York Knicks. Patrick Ewing had a big tip-and-dunk against Indiana.
That was all the way back in 94 to send them to the NBA Finals. Larry Johnson's four-point play against Indiana in 99 would be up. Alan Houston's shot against Miami. But this is game four of the NBA Finals. You missed that. And the Knicks, that series is now tied at 2-2. That's what you love about the game.
The guys like OG Ananobi, who does a little bit of everything, and it's just wanting it a little bit.
bit more it's not dribbling between your legs step back three over an outstretched arm or defender it's just getting to the basket nobody's putting a body on you and speaking of nobody putting a body on you why was even jaron fox in the game why didn't they have a bigger lineup in there they had two small guards in the game yeah on that final on that final next possession both dylan harper and jaron fox it doesn't make any sense
Frank Isola, covered the Knicks for a long time. Brooklyn Net studio analyst, Yes Network. One of the really, truly talented guys in New York and in our business. Good seeing you, buddy. Good seeing you. Enjoy the World Cup. Thank you. Yes, I am. I'm going to enjoy the World Cup. It's on Fox. We said it, folks. Throw your TV changer away. Put it on Fox. Frank's so good.
He's been doing this for a while. He's got memory just rock solid. That's another, by the way, great point. Why do the Spurs have two small guards? You know the Knicks are going to try to shoot the thing with time on the clock and then get a tip in. Why do the Spurs have two small guys on the floor? It's just margin stuff. It's little stuff.
Just get Wemby with two minutes left in the third, two or three minutes left in the third. Get him off the floor. You go to the quarter, commercial break. Let him sit one more minute into the fourth. Just give him a real-time eight, ten-minute break. There was a point last night where they showed Wemby in the second half He was, when your wrists are sweating, you need to sit down.
It was just, you could tell. And he's a guy that sometimes can struggle, sometimes with a little coordination. Well, like he was at mile 25 of the marathon, and we got nine minutes to go in the game. He's done. It's over. He's been better on two days rest. So it was just little things over and over. And one thing Frank said, the Knicks have been EQ, IQ.
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