Everything You Forgot About The 2006-07 NBA Season

0:05 Good morning, sweet world, and welcome to No Dunks, the OG NBA podcast. It's Thursday, October 15th, 2026.

0:14 I'm J.E.

0:14 Skeets, here in the Classic Factory, and alongside me, as.

0:17 Always, Tass Mellis.

0:18 Basketball fans, this is for you.

0:21 Next to him, it's my top shot hot boy, Trey Kirby.

0:23 Ayo, ayo.

0:25 And over yonder, making the magic happen, super producer, J.D.

0:27 Hello.

0:28 There he is. Here we are.

0:29 Hello to everybody joining us live. We love to see it. Hit the like button, subscribe, podcast listeners. Five-star ratings and reviews. Really appreciate it. We're taking a quick break from our season preview series here today. We've done over-under locks, drafted first-time All-Stars, made NBA awards predictions yesterday, been a whole lot of looking to the future. But what about the past, man?

0:54 What about the past? We're flipping it in reverse today, TK, because you're once again taking us on another deep dive through a classic NBA season.

1:05 Yeah, look, don't worry about listening to this immediately. Yeah, right, save it. This history is going to be good 20 years from now because this is the 20-year anniversary of the 2006-2007 NBA season, the 61st season. Of the National Basketball Association. Yes. I love that the Wikipedia page always starts letting us know what number season it is. We're talking about 61. All right. The Roger Maris year. That's right. 06, 07.

1:32 You remember who won the title and who was in the finals in 07? 06, 07.

1:37 That would be Spurs, Cavs, baby. Well, I was going to say led by Duncan, but actually Tony Parker, as you see on the graphic on the thumbnail with the finals MVP taken down. A young LeBron in the Cavs, yeah.

1:49 That's exactly right. Spurs over Cavs, LeBron's first finals, but we're starting way back in 2006. Okay. The 2006 NBA draft. The first with an age limit. You had to be a year removed from high school graduation. You had to be at least 19 years old. The Raptors had the first pick. Andrea Bargnani, come on down, baby. Oh my God.

2:10 Yeah, they messed up. Yeah, that's why I'm wearing this Raptors jersey. It's a Bargnani jersey. No, it's not. Nobody would wear a Bargnani. This is a Jorge Garbajosa jersey, the real rookie that season for the Toronto Raptors. That was a bad year. Actually, yeah, well, the Raptors had the last high school player that was drafted in 05 on their roster at some point.

2:30 Amir Johnson, sure.

2:31 Yeah, it's nice to go back to that.

2:34 I was in New York City for that draft. It's the only draft I've ever attended.

2:37 For the 06 draft.

2:38 Yep, yep.

2:39 I was in the building the night the Raptors selected.

2:42 Andre Bernani. That's actually not true. I was at another draft.

2:44 But anyway, the John Wall, the infamous John Wall interview, of course, where he passed me in a hallway.

2:50 Yeah, Bernani, man.

2:52 Yeah, Bernani, man.

2:53 They said he was cerebral. He was ahead of his time. He was smart.

2:56 He wasn't?

2:57 He may have been ahead of his time. I've said that before. Obviously, a seven-footer could actually sort of shoot.

3:01 But yeah.

3:02 Yeah, I mean, that was the Colangelo season where he was picking up every European, every player that's been around the European game. And it worked out well. Garbo Hossa, one of them, Rasho Nostarevich, Anthony Parker, who played abroad. It was a good year. They won 47 games.

3:20 Oh, yeah, they did.

3:21 Division title.

3:21 Yeah, it was a great year. Hey, Bargnani, first team all-rookie. Yeah, and he was okay. Garbo Hossa, first team all-rookie.

3:27 Damn good.

3:28 Six guys on the first team, all-rookie.

3:30 Oh, classic.

3:31 I love when they do that. Also good to know that had there been no age limit for this draft, like the previous draft, Greg Oden, Kevin Durant, Mike Conley would have all been eligible for the Raptors. It would have been Oden as the number one pick. Who would you have rather had, Bargnani or Oden?

3:47 Great question.

3:48 It's a tough call, huh?

3:50 I don't know.

3:51 I'd stick with Bargnani for the jokes alone.

3:55 Canadian knee doctors would have been good. I mean, it's all about the knees with Greg Oden. When you look at the numbers when he played, he was damn good. Yeah.

4:03 Yeah. Bargnani was not one of the all-stars from the 2006 draft. There were five all-stars. Can you guess any of them?

4:10 From the 06? Marcus Aldridge.

4:11 Marcus Aldridge went number two. He was drafted by the Bulls, traded for Tyrus Thomas, who also didn't make an all-star game. So we were killing it at the top of the draft, our two teams.

4:19 The rookie of the year.

4:20 There you go. Brandon Roy went number six, drafted by Minnesota, traded to Portland for Randy Foy. That's a Roy for Foy trade. And R-O-Y is literally Brandon Roy's name, man. He won rookie of the year.

4:32 Pretty cool.

4:33 The other ones, tough, tough, but you saw their entire careers, obviously. One guy will have a statue named after him or built after him someday. Oh.

4:46 I'm not jumping out. No, no, no.

4:48 Rajon Rondo went number 21, multiple-time All-Star. Kyle Lowry. Went number 24. Oh, he was that draft. That's exactly right. And Paul Millsap, number 47. Oh, damn it. Oh, I was literally sitting on it. I was like, should I say it? Should I say it? I didn't think he was drafted that year. Yeah. Damn it. I should have said it. Also had some coaching changes heading into the season.

5:06 Don Nelson took over for Mike Montgomery in Golden State. Isaiah Thomas replaced Larry Brown for the Knicks. We'll get to Isaiah later. And Eric Musselman succeeded Rick Adelman for the Kings. Wow. Man for man. Man for man. Mussels for Adels.

5:22 Things also looked a little bit different. Rick Adelman had to say that. Rick Adelman had to say that.

5:26 I don't know when Run for the Cube came out. I feel like it was about 2009, 10, maybe something like that.

5:31 Yeah, something like that.

5:33 Great era. All those videos are unfortunately scrubbed from the internet. Are they? You can't find those mispronunciations. Really? Not the same anymore. Oh. Things look different in the NBA as well. The Bucs overhauled their color scheme. This is when they went to like red and green. Very Christmassy. The Knicks introduced their green St. Patrick's Day jerseys. The Wizards started wearing these insane gold and black jerseys, two-tone on the top.

5:55 You got a gold up top. You got the black shorts down below. I mean, did we hate these at the time? Yeah. Yeah. These were ridiculed at the time, but you gave them enough time and they brought them back. They brought them back. You're like, oh, cool. Yeah, exactly. It was year two in OKC for the New Orleans Hornets after Hurricane Katrina. And Kobe Bryant changed his jersey number going from eight to twenty four.

6:19 Right.

6:20 Are you more of an 8 guy or a 24 guy?

6:22 I am 100% more of an 8 guy. I just liked how unique it was. A little infinity flipped on its side.

6:29 Yeah, 24 was fine.

6:30 But remember when he did 24, it was like, oh, this guy just wants to be one better than Jordan. What the hell, man?

6:35 One more. I don't know. 8 was cool. That's young, Cobes.

6:39 Yeah, I didn't realize it was this season where he switched it.

6:41 A lot of great moments in 24. I would say the biggest Kobe moments all kind of came in 24, outside of the 81 points. Anyways, the biggest change was on the court. The NBA introduced a new composite basketball this season.

6:52 Oh, yeah, watch your fingers.

6:54 The Orange Roundy. Yeah, he's for it.

6:57 So to go.

6:58 Exactly. It lasted until January 1st because players hated this thing. They said it tore their fingers. Yeah. Yeah, that's right.

7:06 And this this is a hilarious timing because isn't Adam Silver talking? I know it's not going to happen this season, which is like right around the corner. But like he's saying they have. I don't know, like the technology and the digital ball is coming.

7:18 Here very soon.

7:19 There's a chip in the ball.

7:20 With the chip, thank you.

7:21 A one gram chip. So it doesn't change the weight of the ball too much, just by one gram.

7:26 And nor the feel, because this was an actually different ball. Yes.

7:30 Not the good old leather, yeah.

7:31 They didn't even ask the players. They're like, yeah, we got a brand new ball and it sucks. But if you go and play in a pickup game, you play with a composite basketball every single place. So these guys just got special fingers. That's why they're the greats. Yeah. And we're just sucking it up out there. The NBA season started on Halloween in 2006, October 31st. According to a few searches. Big costumes that year were Captain Jack Sparrow, George W. Bush, Deal or No Deal briefcase models, and Nacho Libre. Oh, yeah. That's a good era, 2006.

8:03 The Deal or No Deal briefcase? I guess that's a lazy costume.

8:11 Totally. If you've got a Howie Mandel in your crew, it looks great. Oh, yeah, true.

8:17 I never watched that show.

8:19 I saw it. Of course. I'm aware of it. Who wants to be a millionaire? Yeah, exactly. I was really into that. Yeah. Ring night was interesting. It was the first ring night in Heat history. They were celebrating their first title in 2006. They got destroyed by the Chicago Bulls. Yeah. The Bulls had just signed Ben Wallace. 108 to 66, the Bulls won on opening night. 26. for captain Kirk Heinrich is the worst loss in NBA history for a defending champion on opening night. Yeah.

8:47 I actually legitimately remember this because this would be our first season of actually, uh, of covering the NBA from the jump from the start of it. We started in Oh six, January of Oh six, but that would be the Oh five Oh six season. And so this would be the first one. I'm sure we talked about that, that beat down. We weren't going daily at that point, but you know, I can't, I can't imagine we didn't do a podcast to recap the first night of the season.

9:11 We weren't going daily?

9:12 Right away in 06, 07?

9:13 Yeah. I thought we were done.

9:14 Yeah.

9:15 Oh, really? Yeah.

9:16 Maybe that's when we started daily?

9:17 Oh, okay.

9:17 Yeah, yeah, yeah.

9:18 I believe you.

9:19 We were doing Skype.

9:19 We were on Skype at like six in the morning.

9:21 Oh, Skype.

9:23 Skype was a 2006 website for sure.

9:25 Somehow worked most of the days, you know?

9:28 Mm-hmm. Oh, man. Dark times.

9:32 I could hear you breathing. Oh, yeah. Through Skype, for sure.

9:36 I may have had the Britney Spears type of mic. 100%.

9:39 I think, in fact, I did.

9:40 I definitely did. We didn't have these type of things, that's for sure.

9:43 You think we should get a headset mic, JD, so we can move around the studio a little more?

9:47 Let's do it. Yeah, okay.

9:48 So you're probably right.

9:50 I guess when we did start in, again, January 06 of the 05-06 season, that wasn't daily.

9:55 No.

9:55 That was like maybe once a week. Then it went to twice a week.

9:58 No, no.

9:59 That was it.

10:00 In JD's living room. I can hear his dogs right now. Oh, yeah, the nails. I can hear those long nails.

10:05 They're in my ear.

10:07 Just a little flashback.

10:08 Weird season for the Heat. They were blown out on ring night. They started 3-5. Shaq had knee surgery in November, missed the next two months of the season. They just never really got on track this year. We basically won't talk about them again until the playoffs. Other opening night game, the Suns beat the Lakers in Los Angeles. No Kobe in this one. He was recovering from off-season knee surgery.

10:27 We'll talk about him quite a bit later. After only three games in the 05-06 season, Amari Stoudemire was back healthy for the Suns. He went on to be first team All-NBA. They are one of the main characters this season for sure.

10:38 Uh-oh.

10:39 Another main character was the other 06 finalist, the Mavericks. They started slow, lost their first four, and then got on track winning their next 12, the first of three double-digit win streaks.

10:50 From Dallas on the season.

10:51 They lost their first four? Lost their first four. And they won how many games?

10:55 67. Yeah. That's crazy. They're 67-15.

10:58 They go nuts in the second half. They go nuts. Wait, we gotta remember that.

11:01 We gotta remember that if we have a team this season. You know, it comes out of the gate.

11:05 It ain't over right away. It's not over.

11:07 That is crazy, man. What a win percentage after that little losing streak to start the year.

11:11 Suns also went streaking. They ripped off a 15-gamer from November to December. The Spurs were doing their thing. They would win six out of seven, then four out of six. Definitely flying under the radar, but all of the good teams were in the Western Conference. Another big early season storyline was Gilbert Arenas. Gilbert was coming off third team All-NBA the previous season. He had withdrawn from the 2006 FIBA World Championship tryouts because he thought Mike D'Antoni and Nate McMillan already had their team picked out and weren't really giving him consideration. Came out and destroyed the league.

11:46 Went for seven points on two of 12 field goals in his first game against Cleveland. then scored 40 or more three times in the next eight games. During this season, he donated $ 100 to D.C. schools for every point scored that season, which Wizards owner Abe Pollin matched. This is also when the Hibachi nickname was very popular for Gilbert Arenas.

12:06 Saw a quote from Karan Butler who said, he says it every time he shoots. Everybody hears it. Whenever Gilbert talks, everybody hears. He really was screaming it this morning in the shoot around. So Hibachi it is. He's on fire. So Hibachi. Hibachi.

12:18 Yeah, I do remember the Hibachi. So was he full on blog mode at this time?

12:22 He was full on blog mode. Yep. Okay. Adidas released his first signature shoe, the Adidas Gil Zero in early December, which was pretty good timing because in December 17th, Gilbert went for a career-high 60 in a win versus Kobe in L.A., scored 16 in overtime, and instead of screaming hibachi all the time, he was yelling quality shots. Because Kobe was like, this guy takes bad shots. Yeah, yeah.

12:45 Of all people to say that.

12:47 Quality shots.

12:49 A few days later, December 22nd, after vowing to average 50 against Mike D'Antoni and Nate McMillan's teams in revenge, Arenas had 54 on the Suns in an OT win against Phoenix. Pretty sweet. Ended up scoring 2,105 points on the season. That's $ 210, 500 times two. Wow. Nearly half a million is what you're getting close to. Exactly. A little later into the season in January, Arenas hit a couple of buzzer beaters. These were big time shots. He hit a three pointer to beat the Bucks in early January.

13:24 A deep pull up three. And then he had another one to beat the Jazz a little bit later in January. I know this is technically 2007, but these were sweet highlights from Gilbert Renis. The dude was a star this season.

13:37 And filmed on a flip phone. It's incredible this is quality.

13:42 When we watched this, this was high-definition. Widescreen televisions. But because of the era when internet video was existing and when YouTube uploads were starting, these videos are like 19, 20 years old. So they look like they're 5,000 years old.

13:58 It's unbelievable. Yeah, the floor there in Washington, it's ugly. I'd rather have the gold jerseys than that sort of beige, blue floor that we saw. Not pretty.

14:10 You don't like that?

14:10 Yeah. The whole Wizards look was a problem back then. I have to agree. It wasn't great.

14:17 And this is like a little tangent here, but because we're talking technology of the time, we already talked about Skype and us doing our first The Basketball Jones podcast. But this was around the time Nora and I remember we bought probably like a 32-inch television.

14:33 Hey, baby.

14:33 Big screen for the living room. But it was like– I swear to God, we paid like $ 3, 000 for it.

14:39 Oh, exactly right.

14:40 It was like a big TV, which it's not, of course, nowadays. It was stupid expensive. My point is we bought our TV at the worst possible time in history, I think. Because it didn't take long then for them to get much bigger and significantly cheaper.

14:55 Yes. Yeah. I've got to Google to look at what a 32-inch TV is. It's small.

15:02 Hilariously small. Smaller than these monitors that we have in here. Oh, yeah.

15:08 Because it's diagonal, right? It's not very big.

15:10 Yeah. I remember I bought my first DVD player I ever had was $ 1, 500. Yeah. See, that's what I mean. Ridiculous. So stupid. To be an early adopter, it's going to cost you. But like we mentioned, this was early in the podcast days. This was a big season, I think, for the NBA blogosphere. Free Darko had this incredible Gilbert Arenas shirt that I definitely had back in the day.

15:33 I don't think I have it. in my archives anymore. So hopefully somebody got that at a Goodwill because that's a sick shirt.

15:38 That's a good one. I remember that because that's like his part of his tattoo. Yeah, yeah. I absolutely had that shirt too.

15:45 But mine's gone. I don't know where it is. I think those guys eventually got Gilbert, one of those shirts. There is a photo of him taking a photo with the shirt, but you can't find it. It's gone. Damn. Also in December, one of the major moments of the season, the Knicks-Nuggets brawl, which actually has its own Wikipedia page. Oh, wow.

16:03 It reads, on December 16, 2006, the fight began with a flagrant foul by Knicks guard Marty Collins on Nuggets guard J.R. Smith in the closing seconds of the game. Several players joined in the confrontation and began to make physical contact. The fight briefly spilled into the stands and also stretched to the other end of the court. All 10 players on the floor at the time were ejected after the altercation was finished. When suspensions were announced, seven players were suspended without pay for a combined total of 47 games. Broke down like this. Mello was suspended 15 games for his part in the brawl. He was leading the league in scoring at the time. J.R. Smith, 10 games.

16:40 Nate Robinson, 10. Marty Collins, 6. Jared Jeffries, 4. Nene and Jerome James got one game each. And both teams were fined $ 500, 000. Wow. This is interesting.

16:51 Like, you wonder how much that incident does then have an effect on what happens when we get to the postseason. Now, of course, Malice in the Palace is years prior. That's the real tipping point.

17:02 I get that.

17:02 But, you know, if that never happens, I don't know. Just throwing it out there. Like, the consequences from this the Nuggets.

17:09 Brawl here with the Knicks.

17:11 I don't know.

17:11 Maybe the penalties are not as harsh when we get to the body check and the Spurs Sunday at all.

17:17 Just throwing it out there. Never know.

17:18 There's a possibility. I hear what you're saying. I blame this fight on Nate Robinson. He was the guy who came in with the fists. He literally put him up like he wanted to box Carmelo Anthony.

17:26 He definitely came in like the fighting leprechaun from Notre Dame.

17:29 Yeah, and they weren't going to fight. He wasn't going to hit Melo. Melo wasn't going to hit him, but he did that, and that got Melo mad, and then the whole thing blew up. Otherwise, it would have just been Over? Yeah. Really? It wouldn't have been all that much.

17:41 They are into the stands, but not any different, I don't think, than the Hornets-Pistons fight from last season.

17:49 Yeah.

17:49 Like they were in the front row and that kind of stuff.

17:52 Yeah, yeah, yeah.

17:52 But it's funny you mentioned that Nate Robinson is at fault because do you remember the big controversy that came out of this brawl between the Nuggets and the Knicks? Not really.

18:04 Controversy?

18:04 No.

18:05 What do you mean?

18:05 Isaiah Thomas was not punished at all. Coach of the Knicks. And basically the Nuggets are like he called out a hit. Yeah, that's right. There's video you can see of Isaiah saying, hey, don't go to the basket right now. It wouldn't be a good idea. I'm just letting you know. And he's saying, it wouldn't be a good idea for you to rub it in and go to the basket and dunk it on our guys. Basically show some class. Yeah. But then Nate Robinson said, for what they did is keeping guys in.

18:31 I knew a foul was going to come. A hard one because we're not going to let guys keep dunking when they're up 20 and they have their starters in. It was a good, clean, hard foul. After that, it went downhill. The league investigated and Isaiah got off easy due to an absence of adequate evidence.

18:47 Yeah, that makes sense. It's the Jordan rules. Yeah, really. It's Marty Collins was the guy who, yeah. Horse collared him, essentially. It was like a two-hander. It was a bad foul. That makes sense, yeah.

19:01 The Nuggets were not done making news in December. The day after Melo was suspended, December 19th, 2006, the Nuggets traded for Allen Iverson.

19:08 Oh, yeah.

19:09 The NBA's second leading scorer at the time. They're the top scorers in the league, both of them. Wow.

19:14 Yeah, that was awesome.

19:15 Do you remember who the Sixers traded Allen Iverson? They traded him to the Nuggets. Do you remember who they got back?

19:20 Oh, I remember one because he came up in the news recently as we're recording here in 2026 because we're just fresh off the Kawhi punishment. Joe Smith was part of that deal.

19:30 Great one.

19:31 Not the main part. He was just there. The main part.

19:36 Yeah, Joe Smith was definitely part of the contract. Philadelphia had to replace their point guard. So one point guard out. Who came back?

19:44 Oh, Andre Miller.

19:45 Andre Miller. That's right. Andre Miller, Joe Smith, two first round picks, which eventually became Daquan Cook and Petri Kopanen.

19:54 Oh, yeah. Finish guy.

19:55 Yeah, I was going to say, right? Finish guy. Drafted 30th in 2007. They traded his rights on draft night to Portland for Derek Byers and Cash. Kopanen never came to the NBA. His draft rights were traded again in 2011 and then again in 2024. What?

20:09 What?

20:10 Yeah, just throw it in. We need to get Ariel Huck-Porty. He's part of the Ariel Huck-Porty trade. Are you serious? I'm serious.

20:19 That's crazy.

20:22 I think Copeland's like a, he's maybe like the finished national team coach or something like that. He's definitely more than finished basketball.

20:27 I've seen the name like recently, it feels like. I mean, I don't know if that's like a name like Smith over there, but I guess it could be.

20:34 Iverson didn't play with Mello for almost a month because Mello was suspended at the time. They finally played together January 22nd. Iverson had 23 points, seven assists. Mello had 28 points and six assists in a blowout against the Grizzlies. How many games did Allen Iverson play with the Denver Nuggets? Hmm.

20:52 Total?

20:52 Yeah. 25. I'm a little bit more.

20:55 45.

20:57 135.

21:00 Oh, I guess he was. He played a full season and then he was traded halfway through the next season. And this was the whole thing.

21:09 I mean, you could tell me, correct me if I'm wrong, obviously traded from the East to the West.

21:13 East to the West. I remember that.

21:14 Being a big, not controversy by any means, but like the all-star game and how that was going to affect that and where he was going to play. I just remember everybody talking about that.

21:23 That's definitely true. And you know, Iverson was very high on voter return lists for sure. Yeah. Iverson averaged 25.7 assists and shot 45% from the field, 34% from three while he played with the Nuggets. Those are like the best numbers of his career, efficiency-wise. Finally, like playing with somebody else who can do anything with the ball. Iverson and Melo in the lineup, Denver went 20-15.

21:44 Not bad.

21:45 Not bad. Easily the biggest trade of the season. Brings us to Christmas and one of the craziest things I found during this deep dive. One game on Christmas. Oh, wow. Lakers at heat.

21:54 I was going to say it must have been Lakers.

21:55 Only game on the schedule. Three times this has happened in NBA history. 06, in 90, the Bulls beat the Pistons. In 89, the Hawks beat the Cavs. Just one game. Wow. Shaq didn't play.

22:07 Oh.

22:08 Kobe had 16 points on 4 of 17 shooting.

22:10 Ew.

22:10 This is a bad Christmas. Yeah. Yeah. Dwayne Wade had 40 points and 11 assists. Eat one, but like... They scheduled it to have Shaq versus Kobe. Yeah. Kobe did nothing and Shaq literally didn't play.

22:21 Yeah. And this is the last Christmas LeBron didn't play, I think.

22:25 I think you're right.

22:26 Yeah. It stood out for me.

22:29 So then the Kobe-Shaq Christmas moment was the year prior?

22:31 Is this right? That makes sense to me. I can remember that was a... I didn't read the Wikipedia page. It must have been. It must have been.

22:39 Because he obviously had won the title year prior.

22:43 Yeah, 0405 probably would have been the first Shaq Kobe season. So December 2024. Anyways.

22:49 That's right.

22:50 Calendar turned from 06 to 07. Suns ripped off a 17-game win streak, their second double-digit streak of the season. Mavs were even hotter. They won 13 straight, lost one, won another eight straight, lost one, then won another 17 straight, went 38-2 over the course of 40 games in the middle of the season. Oh, man. That's how you bounce back from a four-game losing streak to start the year.

23:11 I'll say.

23:13 And bounce back off of finals. So we must have had close. Okay.

23:17 Obviously, the Mavs, 67. I'm assuming the Suns were a 60-win team. And were the Spurs, like, flirting with 60 wins?

23:23 They were close, yeah. Okay, wow. That's three juggernauts. Crazy. On the other side of the spectrum, a disaster season for the Celtics. Franchise legend Red Auerbach passed away from a heart attack right before the season started. In December, Paul Pierce hurt his foot, which sent Boston into a tailspin.

23:38 They lost 18 straight games. Worst streak in the NBA that season. Worst streak in Celtics history. They scored 100 points or more three times in those 18 games, and one was an OT.

23:49 Whoa.

23:49 Yeah. That's a rough year. They basically tanked away for Greg Oden the second half of the season. They didn't get him, but they got a high draft pick. which they traded, and he got Kevin Garnett back. So it worked out.

23:59 It worked out great.

24:00 Sometimes thinking works. We also started losing coaches around now. The Grizzlies fired Mike Fratello after 30 games. and replaced him with Tony Baroni. I couldn't even tell you what he looks like. Is he a white guy or a black guy? I don't even know where to start with this guy. Tony Baroni, put him on a can of SpaghettiOs. Okay.

24:23 Having Baroni.

24:25 Tony Baroni.

24:26 That's the Vanilla Ice song.

24:28 I mean, yeah, I was going to say having a Baroni for sure.

24:30 Tony Baroni, I can't believe it.

24:32 Tony Baroni. Cool name.

24:34 I need to Google him now. Was he a short stint there as a coach?

24:38 I think he finished out that season. You know, he was just the interim guy for, who did I say, the Grizzlies? Uh-huh. Tony Baroni. Oh, let's see. Went 16 and 36, the Grizzlies did. And I don't know. I'm guessing that's his only hit season. assistant as i'm looking now coach yeah that's it that's it that's all.

24:56 Right tony barone was an assistant coach for three years in memphis and then took over after they canned the czar and we'd never heard of tony barone hopefully he's still with us i believe he is i think he's oh no nope he passed in 2019 rest in peace too Anthony Andrew Barone Sr.

25:15 Yes, very true. And indeed, an Italian white man. Yes, yes, yes, yes.

25:20 They went from Fratello to Barone?

25:23 Tony Barone.

25:23 To I Barone the next year.

25:26 Wow.

25:26 It's all Italians. That's all they did in Memphis.

25:29 Weird.

25:30 What a run.

25:31 Incredible. The Italian run. Sometimes you write a name into the doc and you're like, this is going to be funny. And guess what it was? Tony Barone. Timberwolves relieved Dwayne Casey after 40 games. They hired Randy Whitman. And the Bucks canned Terry Stotts later in the season, brought in Larry Kristowiak. Brings us to the All-Star game. You remember where it was in 07? Las Vegas, baby! That's right, at the Thomas and Mac Center.

25:56 What were they doing in the Cox Pavilion during All-Star weekend?

26:00 Great point. Skills challenge over in Cox. Wow. It is weird to think, though. I mean, now having been to Thomas and Mac Center however many times, you're like, they held the NBA All-Star game here? Yeah, that's odd.

26:10 And, well, there were some incidences.

26:12 There were some incidences.

26:14 Last time they did that. But I guess in the future we'll probably be back there. David Lee was the.

26:20 MVP of the rookie sophomore game, went for 30 points and 11 rebounds, 14 for 14 for the field. Probably a lot of defense that game. Salmante Ellis caught five alley-oops in three minutes and 25 seconds.

26:31 Cool.

26:31 It was on the Wikipedia page. Chris Paul had 17 assists and nine steals. Rookie sophomore game records.

26:37 Wow.

26:37 To this very day. To this very day.

26:39 I mean, nine steals, that might be tough to beat. I know it's sloppy out there and people don't really care, but you got to put some effort in even to get nine steals.

26:46 You would have to go out trying to break the steals record.

26:48 Yeah.

26:49 Who's this guy playing defense? Hey, relax, man.

26:51 Easy.

26:51 Of course it was Chris Paul. Yeah. Of course.

26:54 You know, it's also a little surprising that they keep stats in the rookie sophomore game.

26:57 Kind of true. Yeah.

26:59 When you said those numbers, I'm like, I'm trying to think of every single one. I easily forget about so many moments. You just remember the actual little moments. You know, clowning guys. I had forgotten David Lee was.

27:12 He was an MVP.

27:14 33 and how many? What a game.

27:17 30 and 11. 14 for 14. Dunked it every time.

27:20 I think Kenneth Fareed winning, I think of. efficiency in a rookie sophomore game like he was probably similar he was a monster.

27:26 But this is uh this is a classic rookies versus sophomores exactly right yeah.

27:31 We did it like that old school that's right shooting stars was still around detroit beat chicago in the finals because ben gordon shot out of order it was like uh candace dupree i believe was the wmba player on the chicago team it was her shot and ben gordon shot early So they lost by default?

27:50 Oh my god.

27:52 This is a hilarious All-Star weekend.

27:53 That was probably Chris Paul going, hey, you can't do that.

27:55 Totally. Totally.

27:57 Come on, Ben.

27:58 Skills Challenge, totally stacked that year. Okay. Kobe, LeBron, Steve Nash, Chris Paul, and Dwayne Wade.

28:04 We've never had a Skills Challenge with that much talent.

28:07 Five Hall of Famers right there. Holy. Four MVPs. And Chris Paul.

28:11 I'm sure they really tried their asses off at it.

28:14 Dwayne Wade won. He went back-to-back. And I actually asked him about it at the 2016 All-Star Game. Oh, wow. Didn't mention your skills challenge wins as your number one accomplishment. You were the first guy, though, to go back-to-back in the skills challenge, 06 and 07. Where are you putting that on your list of all-time accomplishments? I'm guessing you got the trophies up by the finals MVP at home.

28:32 Well, I have it up, but it ain't about the finals MVP. I think I'm, what, one of two or three guys that's done it so far.

28:40 Yeah, super rare to be a two-time winner. So, for me, it was cool.

28:43 I still think if I got into today, I still think I'd do well.

28:46 All right. I've been thinking about it, but I, you know. I don't know, man. I watched the 08 contest today. It looked like you were done defending. I was.

28:53 I was.

28:53 You know what? I was at that point where I had so many different things on my plate. I wanted to take one off, so I did.

29:00 Very good.

29:00 We really went with the low angle shot for that interview. Yeah. It kind of looks like a spy cam. So they have it in their purse and just point it upwards. You guys are both big guys. You can probably hold the camera a little higher. I'm looking straight up.

29:15 At you guys. Cool.

29:16 Well, I mean, I'm pretty sure that was Matty. Oh, I didn't want to say it. I didn't want to say it.

29:21 Sorry.

29:22 It was Matty. Because doesn't he tell the story?

29:24 He was in like an elevator with.

29:26 Yeah. Yeah.

29:27 Exactly.

29:27 Very funny. Sorry about that. Something I found on the, I think this was on the All-Star Weekend page for the 2007 All-Star Weekend. They have a chart of what happened in the skills challenge. In case you were wondering how many chest passes Chris Paul had to throw in the first round.

29:46 This is when people cared.

29:47 Yeah. As you can see, Kobe Bryant missed four chest passes before completing his fifth in the finals, and that's how Dwayne Wade was able to take the victory.

29:56 This is when people wanted to be Part of every single event. LeBron, Chris Paul, Kobe, and Dwyane Wade. You said all the MVPs. Chris Paul could have won an MVP, too, you know, people say.

30:07 I said Steve Nash, too. I don't know why I said that.

30:09 I guess he wasn't there. Oh, yeah, no Nash.

30:11 Maybe an injury replacement for him.

30:12 Yeah, injury replacement. That's what happened, actually. Wasn't Nash supposed to be there that weekend? Yeah, it was an injury replacement, I think.

30:18 Oh, really?

30:19 Yeah, I think so.

30:20 Yeah, but it's just great to be able to check the results. Jason Capona won the three-point contest.

30:24 Oh, yeah.

30:25 Oh, wow, this is... This is big.

30:27 First off, he was awesome that year from three in the regular season, if I remember correctly. And we have somebody that is a no-dunks diehard who calls himself basically the Jason Capono counter and updates the Apple podcast review every time we mention Capono. So this is big. Because it'll be being updated as we speak.

30:48 It's going to be an update. Yep. A natural update. We're not just forcing Jason to put it on there. He won the three-point contest. Slam dunk contest was low-key hilarious. First one for Dwight and Gerald Green. Dwight did his sticker dunk. I loved it. And this one got a huge pop. I forgot he brought out Jameer Nelson with a tape measure to actually measure how tall Dwight's dunk was. Yeah.

31:09 12 feet 6 inches. Yes, yes, yes.

31:11 I remember that. Nice touch.

31:13 You could have quizzed me on that. I don't know why. It's always stuck in my head. It was 12'6. Uh, yeah. And who else was in this? You said Gerald green, Gerald green, Nate Robinson and Tyrus Thomas. Tyrus Thomas had a small part to play in this one. He didn't advance to the finals, but he did break the net and they had to bring out a guy to fix the net during the dunk contest because they couldn't switch sides.

31:36 They've got all the cameras on one side and this is not fast. Nobody can change a basketball that fast. So mid-dunk contest, they just stop it and let these guys tap dance about changing nets.

31:48 Is that on Wikipedia, how long it took that guy?

31:52 Yeah, there's a chart.

31:53 It's not that long. How long do you think it would take you to change a match? Because I did it recently. A minute, maybe? 60 seconds?

32:00 It takes at least 15 minutes. Yeah. I would say. 15?

32:04 You gotta get the ladder.

32:06 Bring the ladder out, cut it down. I agree it doesn't take that long, but that's how long it took to do it. A lot of pressure.

32:13 I was going to say 5 to 10 minutes it's going to take somebody.

32:16 It doesn't take that long to pull a ladder out. It takes like eight seconds. No one's disagreeing with that. Snip, snip, it's down.

32:24 Snip, snip.

32:25 There's like 15 little rings you got to put the mesh through, whatever it is, however many it is. But, okay, hold on.

32:31 In this guy's defense, you doing it at home on your driveway net, little different than 20,000 people or whatever the capacity is in the Thomas.

32:39 Seriously, like, your fingers are going to be bubbling, baby. I know they are.

32:43 You are going to be messing up because you're trying to do it fast.

32:48 So Dwight did not advance.

32:50 There's a TNT logo next to this guy.

32:53 This is on national TV.

32:55 The pressure would be crazy.

32:56 Crazy pressure, man. This is the biggest moment of his life. Plus you have to find the guy that's the union guy that can actually carry the ladder.

33:03 Yeah, climb the ladder. Probably doesn't have a helmet on or glasses on.

33:09 Yeah, maybe having gloves on.

33:11 That wouldn't help. Screwed him up.

33:13 Yeah, right.

33:14 Why does he have gloves on?

33:15 Great question. Maybe it's a union thing, as JD said about the ladder.

33:19 Did the net rip? Like Tyrus Thomas ripped the net? He must have done a ferocious dunk. I don't remember exactly how he broke it, but he definitely broke it.

33:26 I mean, that's a good foursome. Tyrus Thomas, not the biggest name of the four, but that's a pretty, very good.

33:31 Yeah, the other three especially. I think I remember a couple of Jared Green dunks that I'm sure you're going to remind me of.

33:36 It was Gerald Green versus Nate Robinson in the finals. The final's honestly kind of underwhelming, a lot of misses, but Gerald Green wins by jumping over a table. His most famous dunk, though, from this one, I think, was he did the D. Brown dunk over Nate Robinson, but it started with Paul Pierce bringing out a cardboard cutout of Nate Robinson, and then Nate Robinson's like, Just jump over me. I'm right here. I'm a human man. You think that was all planned? All a bit? Yeah, I mean, that's good if it is. I don't know. Or had they not cleared it? Like, I mean, it is, you know, dangerous to have a guy jump over you. It's true.

34:12 Not that Nate Robinson's the tallest guy in the NBA. I think Gerald Green can clear it, which he did.

34:18 So this isn't Gerald Green cupcake year then.

34:20 No, that's next season, I believe.

34:21 That's next season. He really ramps it up.

34:23 Okay. Dwight's pretty good in this one, I think.

34:25 Yeah.

34:25 I think he, the sticker dunk was the best dunk. of the whole contest, but some great judges in this one. MJ, Dominique, Dr. J, Kobe, and Vince Carter judged the dunk contest. Massive jump scare, though. They're showing the highlights from this, and did he sit in courtside?

34:42 Oh.

34:42 Yeah.

34:44 Biggest event of the weekend, though. Charles Barkley versus Dick Bavetta. Oh, that's this year?

34:50 Oh, my God.

34:50 They straight up gave us a tale of the tape on TNT. Charles Krispy Kreme Barkley versus Dick, the ageless one, Bavetta.

35:00 6'5, weight, question mark, question mark, question mark for Barkley. That's good.

35:06 An active broadcaster racing an active NBA referee down and back and then halfway back. Barkley. backpedals through the finish line and falls down and then kisses Dick Bavetta on the head. And they straight up kiss. What a weird event, huh?

35:21 This would have worked really well if they had known, like, they're going to have to kill 10 to 15 minutes with this guy replacing the net. This would have been the perfect event to slot in there.

35:30 Totally true.

35:30 Let's do Bavetta versus Barkley now. But I'm sure that's not how it went down, yeah.

35:35 Yeah, we haven't seen a Barkley race for a while. Let's get him out there.

35:38 He's taking lots of. To help him lose weight. I think he's a lot lighter.

35:44 Yeah, he would be happy to replace those question marks with a real number.

35:48 A real number, yeah.

35:49 All-star game. Seven first-time all-stars. Caron Butler, Dwight Howard, Joe Johnson, Carmelo Anthony, Carlos Boozer, Josh Howard, Mehmet Okur. Oh, Mehmet.

35:58 Oh, yeah.

35:59 LeBron led the game in voting. Chris Bosh started, become the third Raptor to ever start an all-star game. Who are the other two? To start? Well, Vince. Yep. It's easy.

36:10 Antonio Davis? Antonio Davis.

36:12 I'm surprised he started.

36:14 Very surprising.

36:15 Lacking in centers maybe that year.

36:18 And Bosh was a fill-in too, right? Maybe not.

36:23 I don't know.

36:24 Why would he have started? They were good.

36:27 All of Canada got behind him. Was he doing his yeehaw, like, vote for me type stuff with his cowboy hats?

36:32 I don't know.

36:33 Great question a little bit later i don't know on the wikipedia page that feels later but yeah hey just to go back to uh barkley versus bavetta here's a fun question for the stream team and for you guys um what would be the equivalent today of a retired player you know probably a broadcaster of some sort and an official if they were to do a race today who would be 2026's barkley bavetta.

37:00 Okay, so I mean.

37:01 The ref part is easy, I think.

37:02 Zarba?

37:03 I was gonna say, I think Bill Kennedy.

37:05 Oh, Bill Kennedy, yeah, you're probably right.

37:07 Bill Kennedy is such a personality.

37:10 But who's, I don't know, who's racing? Kendrick Perkins? Okay.

37:15 I'll take it. Yeah.

37:16 It feels like it would be a fair race. Yeah. Like he is the athlete, but you know, he's bigger than he was.

37:22 Yeah.

37:22 Cause like not a fast guy to begin with. Okay. We got Bill Kennedy versus, uh, Kendrick Perkins in a race.

37:29 You could see like Richard Jefferson, like calling out Bill Kennedy to race to like talking some smack. Rich is a good little trash talk. Cause I can't see like Nash, Dirk, Blake Griffin, Haslam. I can't see the prime.

37:42 No, no. Richard.

37:43 Yeah. Richard.

37:44 A lot of backpedaling. Richard would just mess around or do the side truffle.

37:50 Very funny. The West beat the East 153-132. Kobe won MVP. He scored 31 points. Probably the coolest thing that happened during this game is in the middle of the game, Gilbert Arenas went off a trampoline and dunked just as part of entertainment. And everyone's like, is that safe? Maybe not. But Gilbert was on top of the world. He said Shaq bet him $ 100, 000 to be donated to his foundation.

38:16 That was written on his blog, which was ghostwritten by Dave McMenamin. That's right. That's right. Shout out to Dave McMenamin.

38:21 I mean, that's a sweet dunk here as we watch it on YouTube.

38:24 It's sick. Pretty good.

38:25 Between the legs?

38:26 Yeah.

38:27 Yeah, it was smooth.

38:29 I mean, I guess, yeah, you could twist an ankle on the trampoline, on the landing, but also these guys jump in the air and do this stuff.

38:36 Yes, but there was a mat, right?

38:37 Yeah, I know. There was a mat as well. But, you know, like you twist an ankle.

38:39 Yeah, you could twist it, yeah.

38:40 But. That's cool.

38:41 I'd forgotten about that.

38:42 Yeah, me too. Uh, like you mentioned skates, there was a shooting all-star game weekend involved. Pac-Man Jones and Nelly were like at the club that outside of Las Vegas, mayor Oscar Goodman said it was a disastrous weekend. And it was kind of like the end of the NBA in Vegas experiment for a while. Yeah. Yep.

39:02 Sin city lived up to its name. Some fun times. I'm sure we're at, uh, that weekend though.

39:08 Wow. Trade deadline was a complete dud. Three trades on deadline day. The Hawks traded for Anthony Johnson. The Blazers traded Juan Dixon to the Raptors and got Fred Jones back. And the 76ers traded Alan Henderson to the Jazz. Oh, my God. Probably a fun show. Who's the best player.

39:25 You named in that bunch?

39:27 That's got to be.

39:28 It might be Alan Henderson.

39:29 The most. anticlimactic trade deadline in the history of the game.

39:34 Pretty bad. Holy... Fred Jones got a dunk title.

39:37 That's... Yeah.

39:38 He did.

39:39 And he had most, I guess, you could argue, most memorable name. Juan Dixon's on Real Housewives of Potomac or something like that. Or at least his wife is. His ex-wife, I don't even know anymore, but... Yeah, probably Fred Jones. Didn't Alan Henderson win an award?

39:52 I think he won a six-man or something. I think you're right.

39:55 Or most improved, maybe. Like way back when nobody cared.

39:57 Alan Henderson.

39:58 Henderson or Anderson?

40:00 Alan Henderson.

40:02 Alan Henderson.

40:03 He was later.

40:03 He was a little later, yeah.

40:05 97, 98, most improved player, Alan Henderson. He got so good that year. Yeah, he was great. Biggest trades were not at the deadline. Iverson trading. Iverson. December, obviously. And in January, the Warriors traded Ike Diago, Mike Dunleavy Jr., Keith McLeod, and Troy Murphy to the Pacers for Steven Jackson, Al Harrington, sarunas yesikeviches and josh powell okay these guys will be important later yeah after the trade deadline the spurs were hot they had a 13 game win streak from february into march lost two won six lost one won another six they went 25 and six down the stretch 58 wins phoenix won 22 of their last 30 61 wins dallas 32 of their last 38 67 wins tops in the eastern conference was detroit with 53 wins.

40:46 Ooh, could we see a repeat this season?

40:49 Flip-flop style. In the East, yeah, yeah. Exactly right. Cavs were the other East team with 50 wins. They would have been sixth place in the Western Conference because the Rockets had 52 wins and the Jazz had 51.

40:58 Wild.

40:59 West was stacked this year. Yeah, that's a loaded conference. Also out West, Kobe had one of the greatest stretches of his career. He went for 50-plus points in four straight games. March 16th, he had 65 against Portland. That was a season high. Hit a game-tying three, sent the game into overtime. March 18th, 50 against the Timberwolves. 22nd, 60 against the Grizzlies. 23rd, 50 against the New Orleans, Oklahoma City Thunder. No, Hornets. New Orleans, Oklahoma City Hornets.

41:28 There's only been one other player with four or more consecutive 50-point games.

41:32 Who is it?

41:33 I mean, Wilt or Jordan, yeah. Yep, it's Wilt. Tanking, huge storyline. After the trade deadline, I found two Bill Simmons columns and one John Hollinger column. Wow. Yeah. This was going into the Odin-Durant draft, and then it was even deeper after that, like Horford, Conley, good players. So people were making their moves. The Celtics, the Grizzlies, and the Bucs were the biggest offenders. Apparently a March 21st game was nasty. The Celtics took an 18-point lead in the middle of the third quarter. Doc Yanks, Paul Pearson, Kendrick Perkins. For the fourth quarter, Celtics lose by eight to the Bobcats. If you were a fantasy basketball player back then, this is when Walter Ehrman was dominating.

42:13 Yeah, he had a huge stretch at the end of the year.

42:15 Like a monster month. Yes. Including apparently this game.

42:18 Wow.

42:20 Tanky.

42:21 He had the.

42:21 Long locks to that guy. Yeah, yeah, yeah. You call him a dramatic chipmunk or something like that once in a while? Yeah. Yeah, like where he, I think he did it. Yeah, maybe so. Yeah. Not quite 82 game all-stars. Game 76, April 10th, Jason Kidd and Vince Carter become the 10th pair of teammates with a triple-double in the same game. Cool. Just a factoid that was on Wikipedia.

42:43 The Nets beat the Wizards that night. No Gilbert Arenas. He tore his MCL a few games prior. It's over. Damn. Just like that. Did he do a blog post on it?

42:51 Probably.

42:51 Yeah. A lot of dead links on NBA.com back in the day. They've switched servers quite a few times. Yeah, we'll talk to.

42:58 Cute Steve about that.

43:00 I'll ask him. He was probably there. He probably was. He surprised me at all.

43:04 It does suck. Gil got injured a lot for the Wizards, period. That rivalry with LeBron could have been better in the postseason if he wasn't hurt.

43:12 Oh, yeah.

43:12 Yeah, that would have been good. But even the Wizards-Cavs thing, they played three straight years in the playoffs, I think.

43:19 They did, I think so.

43:20 It was still good. It was still good.

43:21 Real game, 82 All-Stars. Willie Green had a career-high 37 in a Sixers win over the Raptors, but Luke Jackson had a career-high 30 for Toronto.

43:30 Lefty Luke?

43:31 Lefty Lukey.

43:32 He was great.

43:33 Scored 30. Sort of. He was great that game.

43:37 Yeah.

43:38 Tass, your guy, Vasilis Spanoulis.

43:40 Oh, yeah.

43:41 Career-high 13 in a Rockets loss to the Jets. That's his career-high.

43:45 Blame Jeff. Jeff, not Jeff. Jeff Van Gundy. It's all Jeff Van Gundy's fault. Yeah, he barely played. They had Rafer Austin starting over.

43:53 Sure.

43:54 He barely played, and he left. How many games did he play? Not a lot. I thought Iverson played 20 or 25 that year. Spanoulis played 30 or something and then left.

44:04 Yeah, I guess he only did play that.

44:06 He played 31 games in his career. He only played that one year, yeah.

44:09 Left on top, though. He did. 13, I'm good. Terrence Kinsey had 22, 9, and 7 for the Grizzlies.

44:17 Jesus.

44:17 Travis Outlaw had 36 off the bench. Portland lost to the Warriors. And Reggie Evans had 19 points and 20 rebounds. That's a lot of roast beef off the bench in a Denver win against the Spurs. Oh, man. Reggie Evans. Those last games, man. Those are special. You never know what's going to happen.

44:31 Terrence Kinsey, man.

44:33 I think he was a rookie of the month in April. What?

44:36 I don't remember this guy.

44:38 Terrence Kinsey.

44:39 Like your two-week month award because they only play for two weeks.

44:44 Exactly. And one of these games, he had an awesome game, 22-9-7. That might have won him the entire month. Speaking of awards, the MVP of that season, you remember?

44:53 Dirk Nowitzki.

44:54 Dirk Nowitzki. First European-born MVP. Went for 25 points, 9 rebounds a game on 50-40-90 shooting.

45:01 Yeah, and they won 67 games. So a deserving MVP. Unfortunately, it blows up in his face.

45:05 Indeed it does.

45:06 Yep.

45:07 Takes it over Steve Nash and Kobe Bryant. Rookie of the year, as we mentioned before. Brandon Roy. Brandon Roy. Bargnani did get one first place vote. Chuck. Chuck Swirsky, baby. Way to go, Chuck. Homer.

45:18 That's when you can drop the Homer.

45:20 Yeah, that's good.

45:21 Oh, gosh. Too many flashbacks right now with the Bargnani and then Brian Colangelo getting to the podium later on defending the pick over LaMarcus Aldridge. Sam LaMarcus Aldridge, wow, he's got two more rebounds per game. What's that?

45:36 Who cares? Who cares about rebounds?

45:39 Aldridge, man. What a player that guy was.

45:41 Marcus Camby was Defensive Player of the Year. Monte Ellis was Most Improved Player, second season. Went from 6.8 points per game to 16.5. That's pretty good. Good jump. Sixth Man of the Year, Leandro Barbosa. And the Coach of the Year, Sam Mitchell. Yeah.

45:57 Sam.

45:58 Kiss of death, though. You don't want to win Coach of the Year. You don't want to. Let the refs to their first division title. Gave him coach of the year. Leaders that season, Kobe led in points per game, 31.6. Kevin Garnett led in rebounds, 12.8. Steve Nash assists, 11.6. Baron Davis was the steal leader, 2.1 steals per game.

46:15 And Marcus Camby led the lead in blocks, which is why he was defense player of the year. It was so simple back then.

46:20 He didn't have to know.

46:22 That guy blocks a lot of shots. Give it to him. You don't have to know about win shares per 48.

46:25 I wonder, like, how good was the Nuggets defense?

46:31 Like, I'll check it out. I'm sure they weren't better than the Spurs, I would have to imagine.

46:36 That's what I'm saying.

46:37 Like, okay, I got it here. Oh, wow, way lower than I even thought. Like, they ranked 11th defensively in the league. But, you know, defensive rating, we didn't even know it was a thing back then.

46:46 Didn't even know.

46:47 Couldn't count that high.

46:48 What?

46:48 Who cares?

46:49 He blocks a lot of shots and gets a lot of rebounds. That was the other part. Rebounds were a big rebounder.

46:53 Which are important.

46:54 Don't get me wrong, but that's funny. It can be his only win, I assume.

46:57 His only. Yeah. We're going to the playoffs. New format in the playoffs. Each division winner may be seeded no lower than fourth, but the top non-division winning playoff team may seed higher than a divisional champ if they have a better win-loss record. Home court advantage is given to the team with the better record, regardless of seeding. This actually happened during this. Okay. I think it was the Jazz and the Rockets where like one of them won the division. The other one had more wins. Whatever.

47:23 It's more complicated than the way they pick draft picks.

47:26 Yes, it is. Pistons Magic was the 1-8 matchup in the Eastern Conference, just like in 2026. Sweep City. Pistons win 4-0. This is during Chris Webber's half season as a Piston. Whoa. World number 84.

47:41 Oh, yeah. I remember that.

47:42 That's a weird one. Wear that to Coachella.

47:45 A Weber Pistons 84. He's also got like a red headband on for a lot of this. Said, I called up my six-year-old nephew and I told him that I might be coming home to Detroit. I had explained everything to him. He said, what jersey are you going to wear? I told him I can't wear number four. Joe Dumars is the man. I can't wear number four. Dumars is there at the press conference. Chimes in, smart player, smart guy.

48:06 Webber says, get 84. I said, what? He said, get a pencil. Write it down. 84 is your jersey. Write it down. His mother then got on the phone and said he had a dream. I was wearing 84, and I'm going to wear 84. I won the game. He had a dream about it. I thought about 44, my high school number. But when my nephew said that, I said, why not? Wow. Straight up, why not at number 84?

48:26 Weird number.

48:27 Change it up.

48:28 Definitely.

48:28 I mean, I can't even think of many NBA guys to wear 84.

48:33 He could be the only one.

48:34 Yeah, obviously a much more popular football number.

48:37 Yeah, good football number. Randy Moss, maybe? Randy Moss, for sure. On the Vikings. Cavs-Wizards was the 2-7 matchup in the East. Second of three straight years that they played in the first round. Unfortunately, this is the boring one. 06 was LeBron's first playoffs. He hits two game-winning layups. Damon Jones hits a clinching jump shot. In 08, it's the huge one.

48:56 Deshaun Stevenson called LeBron overrated. LeBron said that responding... to Deshaun Stevenson would be like Jay-Z saying something bad about Soulja Boy. So then Soulja Boy performed at a Wizards game. And then LeBron got Jay-Z to record Blow the Whistle about this whole thing. That really happened. It all happened in 2008. But in 2007.

49:14 And Soulja Boy's still performing at halftime of games.

49:17 Is he? I wonder if that was his first time. This guy's good. Yeah. wow. This guy's got it. I'm pretty sure the Wizards won that game too. It was a real inspiration. They really cranked that. Unfortunately, for our purposes, 2007 sucked. Gilbert Arenas was out.

49:31 Yeah.

49:31 Ron Butler was out. Cav sweep. Sweep. Yeah.

49:34 The East had a bunch of sweeps early on.

49:35 They were short series. Antoine Jamison, though, did lead every game in scoring. Just so you know. Good for him.

49:41 Well, he ended up scoring a lot of points in his career.

49:43 He did.

49:43 Raptors Nets, 3-6 Eastern Conference. Raptors' first division title in history. 47 wins. Tied for the most in franchise history at the time.

49:51 Hang the banner.

49:52 First time with home court advantage. That's right. In a playoff series. More importantly, it was Vince versus the Raptors. And Vince led the series in scoring while going 15 of 32 from three. Yeah. Jason Kidd averaged a triple-double. Yeah. Richard Jefferson made a bunch of big plays to win game six. Yeah, he did. I was there. Nets win 4-2.

50:09 I drove down to that shitty-ass arena in New Jersey for that game.

50:13 IZOD.

50:14 Yeah, the IZOD. Was it called the IZOD then?

50:16 Yeah, I think you're right.

50:17 It was a really good game. I was also really fucked up on shrooms, I remember, for that game. But I remember Calderon should have thrown the ball a little higher. And I think we maybe win that game. And then who knows what happens in game seven. I still live and die by that. It was my angle. Again, probably the shrooms more than anything, but it was like, I could see it. If you just chucked it higher, it gets over. And I think Bosh at the net maybe wins the thing.

50:41 Yeah, it was a bad pass. But before they got into that series where they lost game one at home, that's a Raptor thing to do. Before they got into that, if Jorge Garbojosa didn't break his leg earlier on in the season... And he was playing that series. They win that series. They needed him. The difference may have been. Yeah, they're starting Bargnani instead of him.

51:04 Bargnani and Bosh, that's the future. No.

51:08 Yeah, Bargnani wasn't starting that season, but they had to throw in somebody. They had a TJ Ford out there. And they're playing Bosh. And Anthony Parker was good. Really good. I think he led the team in scoring. But, yeah, they needed Jorge.

51:22 Okay.

51:23 That was a bad pass from Jose.

51:24 No doubt. Did you go to any games in Toronto?

51:26 I think so. I shared season seats, so I only had access to one game. One of them. One of them. And probably would have been there for game seven if Jose Calderon threw a better pass. But either way, if Jorge was there, they win that series. He was their heart.

51:45 Juan Dixon was there. Juan Dixon and Luke Jackson. It didn't help, apparently. It didn't help. Heat-Bulls was the 4-5 matchup in the Eastern Conference. Wade and Shaq are both back after long absences. Bulls sweep. They just had their number this year. Dang average, 26 points per game. Ben Gordon averaged 25 per game for the Bulls. This was their first playoff series win since 1998. The first time in 50 seasons that a defending champ was swept in the first round. Wow. Turned out to be Pat Riley's last playoff series as a coach and Gary Payton's last game.

52:15 Hmm.

52:16 There you go. Chicago, Cleveland, and Detroit all swept Miami, Washington, and Orlando, like you're mentioning, Skeets. That means the Central went 12-0, and the Southeast Division went 0-12 in the first round of the playoffs. Holy crap. Yeah, it's weird. That's strange. Just weird. Out West, Mavericks Warriors won one of the world's most famous playoff series. This is the We Believe Warriors. That's right. Mavs were 67-15, best record in franchise history, MVP season for Dirk. Warriors finished 42 and 40. This was their first playoff appearance in 13 years.

52:50 They won 16 of their last 21 to even make the playoffs.

52:53 Yeah.

52:54 They had a game against each other on April 17th. The Mavs rested all their starters. They basically could have bounced the Warriors from the playoffs, but the Warriors are like, they're scared of us. And they kind of were scared of the Warriors because this was a perfect matchup. Small ball versus the big Mavericks. You had Steven Jackson guarding Dirk Nowitzki and you had the brain power. of Don Nelson, who was a Mavs coach and was now the Warriors coach.

53:18 Pretty sweet. Oh, man.

53:19 Very sweet.

53:20 I can still picture us talking about how they were guarding Dirk Nowitzki and just so up into him and under him and making it very difficult.

53:28 Yeah, Steven Jackson.

53:29 And his shorts.

53:31 Matt Barnes, obviously, involved. Yeah, that was magical.

53:35 And it was a terrible time for Dirk because the internet just called him Every single name because he had that coming off losing to the Miami Heat the season before. But he did so many good things in the playoffs around those couple things. And then, you know, he redeemed his name several years later. But I just hated everybody talking about Dirk because he was awesome. But that was a 42 and 40 to take out somebody at 67, 15.

54:03 That was that was rare. It was awesome to watch.

54:05 Yep, Golden State stole game one in Dallas. Mavs won game two. Golden State defended home court in three and four, first home playoff games for them since 94. Mavs win game five at home. And then game six, Steve Kerr's on the broadcast. He says it's the loudest arena he's ever been in. Dirk, eight points on two of 13 shooting.

54:24 Three turnovers. Meanwhile, Steven Jackson. 33 points, seven threes, scores 13 straight during an 18 to zero third quarter run for the Warriors.

54:32 I did not realize he scored 33 in that.

54:35 Game six win. I know he had a great series.

54:38 Wow.

54:38 I can't believe Dirk had eight points. And then years later, LeBron had eight points against the Dallas Mavericks in the 2011 finals when he had that bad game where he wasn't shooting.

54:49 History, bro.

54:49 Yeah, history came around.

54:51 And is this game six the infamous Baron Davis championship?

54:55 Dunk? Nope. No, that's jazz. Yeah, that's jazz.

54:58 Nevermind.

54:58 Warriors were the third eight seed to beat a one seed first in a best of seven series with the heat losing as well. This was the first time both previous years finalists lost in the first round happened again in 2021. Found this on Wikipedia. Didn't know it. Apparently the Warriors stole, we believe from the Kings who used it in the 2005 playoffs. This was so, they were the first people to believe. I didn't.

55:21 Yeah.

55:21 Yeah.

55:22 Yeah, it went Kings, Warriors, and then Ted Lasso.

55:25 Exactly.

55:25 That's the order of believing.

55:27 It's up for grabs right now. Yeah. A journey. Journey of what as well. Yeah, right. It never stopped. You're right.

55:31 You're right.

55:35 2005.

55:35 You had Kings, we believe, as a graphic as we just showed you on YouTube in the doc that I saw.

55:40 I was like.

55:40 Oh, that must just be a typo. He must mean Warriors, we believe.

55:43 And you're like, no. I'm like, what? Straight up the Kings.

55:45 And then I'm like, looking up Kings, we believe. Okay, I did not know that.

55:48 I didn't know that. Suns-Lakers 2-7 in the West. Kobe averaged 33 a game, had 45 in a Game 3 win, but the Suns win 4-1. Steve Nash, 23 assists in Game 4. Hell yeah. That's a career high for him and one short of Magic and John Stockton's playoff record. Huh. Yep. 23 assists. That's a lot. 23. Spurs Nuggets, 3-6 in the Western Conference. The Nuggets steal game one on the road.

56:12 31 for Iverson. 30 for Melo. And then the Spurs win the next four. And I started thinking, is this when Graydon came up with Gentleman's Sweep? Blogs were around. He's a Spurs fan.

56:24 You might be right.

56:25 They lost one. Won four straight. I don't know. Maybe so.

56:28 We'll send them a text.

56:30 We'll get confirmation.

56:32 0-7 first round that you thought about that? Michael Finley, 26 points, 8 threes in the closeout win for the Spurs. Jazz Rockets were 4-5 in the Western Conference. The Jazz had the higher seed. They won the division, but the Rockets had home court because they had a better record, and home court mattered in this series. Home team won the first six games. So game seven, Houston's feeling good, feeling great. But Carlos Boozer went for 35-14-5. Darren Williams.

56:57 had 20 and 14 assists. The Jazz win game seven on the road. Here's a cherry-picked stat from Wikipedia. Houston became only the third road team in history to win game seven of a seven-game series in which the home team won each of the first six games. Can you name the other three? Just kidding. That's just a good.

57:13 Cherry-picked stat for you. Is one of them the Rockets run?

57:18 I don't even know. I don't even have the answer.

57:20 Okay.

57:21 Just to say that again, I don't know if you had it right. The Rockets became the first team to lose a game seven in In a seven game series where everybody had won at home prior.

57:30 Was that right? Yeah, basically.

57:32 Yes.

57:32 Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes.

57:34 Very rare. Yes. Very rare.

57:38 Eastern Conference, the semifinals, the number one Pistons against the five seed Chicago Bulls. This was their first meeting since 1991. This was the Ben Wallace revenge series. He had signed with the Bulls after being a Piston winning title with them. Pistons won the first three Bulls won the next two Pistons win in six for two. Not much exciting. Yeah, I don't really remember much of that series. The Bulls were a little ahead of schedule. It's like, cool, they beat the Heat. That was a surprise.

58:03 That was a surprise.

58:03 And then the Pistons were good. Yeah. In the other semifinal matchup as the two-seed Cavs against the six-seed Nets, the Cavs win the first two at home. Nets win game three in Jersey. Cavs win game four on the road. Eric Snow put the clamps on Vince Carter, forced a turnover with two seconds left. Nets stave off elimination in game five. Cavs win game six in New Jersey. Last playoff game ever played in New Jersey. Maybe forever.

58:29 See you, New Jersey.

58:30 See you, New Jersey. Jason Kidd did average a triple-double for the playoffs, 14-11-11.

58:34 That was peak Darren Williams, though. I mean, that was a good time.

58:39 In the Western Conference, the two-seed Suns took on the three-seed Spurs in one of the most controversial series in NBA history. Game one, the Spurs steal home court. Tim Duncan, 33-16 in five blocks. Tony Parker, 31 points, eight assists. Steve Nash has 31 points and eight assists of his own. But this game is most well known for Steve Nash getting his nose all busted up. I think he ran into Tony Parker's shoulder or something like that. And Steve Nash's face has bled so many times that you have to like put in which year. and this is the one where like he didn't have the he could use both of his eyes yeah but his nose was bleeding a lot he had to like come in and out of the game to get different tape jobs on that honker.

59:19 His nose looks so gross here man it looks disgusting Like, it looks like he was in the octagon, man.

59:27 Like, how did that happen on the basketball floor? What a mess.

59:30 Disgusting.

59:31 But you're right, there are a lot of photos.

59:32 Then he has eyes all bandaged up and other bloody noses and faces. Yeah, it's tough to tell which year is which when Nash got his face done in.

59:40 Yes, 07 is just the nose. He got the eyes a couple of years later, I guess. Game two, a bounce back blowout. Suns win. They win by 20. Omari, 27 points, nine boards. Nash goes for 20 points, 16 assists. Afterwards, Amari called the Spurs a dirty team. Bruce Bowen basically kicked him in the leg, said Manu need him in the dick during the regular season. People hated the Spurs back then. The Spurs are a beloved team now because of the 2013 and 14 edition that they put out, the beautiful basketball. But they were despised at this point in time. They were boring and floppers.

1:00:13 Yeah, and I think the big part, like Bruce Bowen as the main antagonist, it's sort of like, to me, comparable to like Draymond and the Warriors, where it's like really everybody else is fine. But like they get a bad rap because it's the main guy doing all the shit is Draymond Green.

1:00:29 And that's sort of how I remember the Spurs with Bruce Bowen.

1:00:32 Yeah, same.

1:00:32 Yeah. But yeah, Duncan was considered boring and Manu was considered like the floppiness flopper we'd ever seen. Yes, that's fair. Yeah, that's fair. Game three, Spurs win at home. Duncan 33 points, 19 rebounds, three blocks. Manu has 24 off the bench. Suns fans think that Tim Donaghy rigged this game. Game four, the Suns win on the road. They're down double digits early in the fourth quarter. Come back to win, regain home court advantage, but that is not what anybody remembers about game four because with 18 seconds left, Robert Horry body checks Steve Nash into the scorer's table. Flagrant two on Horry. He's ejected. But more importantly, Amari Stoudemire and Boris Diaw barely wander onto the court. Like you can

1:01:13 barely see him in this clip. Steve Kerr on the broadcast though says, if they follow the letter of the law, they may be without Stoudemire and Diaw for game five. Craig Sayre comes in with a sideline report. He says, actually, Amari Stoudemire was checking in for offense defense. So he's allowed to be there. He was not allowed to be there.

1:01:31 Nah. He wasn't really checking in, though.

1:01:34 I mean, he's on the bench. Craig was spinning.

1:01:37 Craig was spinning. Actually, I loved the late, great Craig Sager's interview of Nash after the game. I always remember him saying, Robert Ory, he's known for his big shots, but... that could have been a cheap shot on you, Steve. And Steve goes, that's a good one. That was a good one.

1:01:53 But we have talked to Steve Nash after that incident, too, because I was always, I always believed Nash embellished it, too.

1:02:01 Oh, yeah, you're talking about Ginobili as the flopper.

1:02:03 Yeah, exactly.

1:02:04 Nash sold it.

1:02:04 And he admitted it. Nash was like, yeah, I did, 100%.

1:02:06 Well, that part.

1:02:08 Yeah, exactly.

1:02:09 As we're watching, the arms.

1:02:11 Yeah, he, like, really sells it.

1:02:13 But it's so funny, because if he doesn't do that, do you get the, like, As fired up Suns guys coming out.

1:02:18 I don't know. So it's like, oh, in a weird way, did he like actually cause it to be worse?

1:02:23 Maybe.

1:02:23 Yeah.

1:02:23 It's all Robert Ori's check.

1:02:25 But yeah.

1:02:26 Started everything. Good for Robert Ori to get Amari Stoudemire and Boris Steele suspended for the next game. Amari literally. They shouldn't have been suspended. No, they should not.

1:02:34 That's a silly part.

1:02:35 That was coming off the mouths of the Palace and Stern and Stu Jackson, who was handing down all the penalties then. making sure guys weren't doing stuff. And Mari didn't do anything. He kind of came up.

1:02:47 They did nothing.

1:02:48 They did nothing.

1:02:49 There's so many coaches between them as well. Yeah, yeah.

1:02:52 It doesn't work out for them well because it's kind of close to their bench. So Mari takes three steps. Mari takes a little bit more. But he's going to help out Nash, really, if anything. And then Boris Diaz, he's chilling, dude. He's having an espresso. He's doing nothing. And then they took him out. And after a comeback like that, they should have gone home.

1:03:11 All right.

1:03:12 They should have. They should have gone home and won game five after that. That was their time, man. That was their time.

1:03:17 And I know it's a semifinals and we usually say this for like, let's say a conference finals where we're like, this was the real finals. But like, this was maybe an incident after the Mavs get balanced, a 67 win team. It's like these two teams, like we said, won a 60 win team, won the Spurs close to it. It's like, this was like, maybe whoever wins is going to win the title.

1:03:34 Absolutely.

1:03:34 They do.

1:03:34 Yep.

1:03:35 Because they take care of the Jazz who go far and then obviously take care.

1:03:37 Of the young LeBron team.

1:03:38 Yeah, the Spurs destroyed.

1:03:40 I don't know.

1:03:41 To have that impact.

1:03:41 The next two rounds.

1:03:42 Yeah, stupid.

1:03:43 Yeah, that cost them. That was their chance.

1:03:45 So Omari and Diao were suspended for game five. Ori got a two-game suspension. Mike D'Antoni said, we have the most powerful microscopes and telescopes in the world in Arizona, and you could use those instruments and not find a shred of fairness or common sense in that direction. That was pretty funny.

1:03:59 D'Antoni was a great coach on the mic. He was solid.

1:04:03 The sad part about this is that the Suns still should have won game five. It was in Phoenix. They were up 24 to 13 after the first quarter. Stretched the lead out to 16. They were up by 11 early in the fourth. They were up eight with five minutes left. They held the Spurs to 88 points. Suns scored 100 or more in every game that series, except for this one when they scored 85. Steve Nash won for eight in the fourth quarter. Missed his last five shots.

1:04:27 Manu went for 15 of his 26 in the fourth. Bruce Bowen hit a go-ahead three with 36 seconds left.

1:04:34 Bowen.

1:04:34 Suns played six guys in the second half. Oh, Dan Toney was running with his guys. He's like, we got to win this one. Yeah. And they didn't. Game six. Everybody back. No worry. Tight game for a while. Suns are at mid-third quarter. Huge Spurs run, 34-13 between the third and the fourth quarter. Spurs win.

1:04:52 Manu, 33-11-6.

1:04:52 Tony Parker, 30.6 assists. Tim Duncan, 24-13, nine blocks. 38-12 for Amari. 18 and 14 for Nash. Sick game. Damn. That's a hell of a game. Yep. Crazy series. In the other Western Conference semifinals, the Jazz and the Warriors. Game one, Jason Richardson ties the game with 33 seconds left, but Carlos Boozer gets a putback off a Memento Kerr miss, takes the lead. Steven Jackson misses a wide open three to take the lead, but Utah wins. Game two, the Jazz win in overtime. The big story from this one.

1:05:24 Derek Fisher arrives at halftime after emergency eye surgery for his 10-month-old daughter. Oh, yeah. Comes in, forces a turnover for Baron Davis while the Jazz are down three with 27 seconds left, then hits a three-pointer with one minute left to put the Jazz up six. Basically the dagger in that game. Warriors win a blowout in game three.

1:05:44 This is where we get the Baron Davis dunk with one of the all-time great celebrations where he just reaches his shirt up and pulls his tummy out. this was an awesome dunk I mean.

1:05:54 This was just the place erupted They feel like, yeah, we've still got a chance.

1:05:58 Yeah, you're right.

1:05:59 He just untucks. He sort of shows his, I don't know, he's almost like wearing, not a.

1:06:03 Back brace, but like whatever. It probably is, yeah. Yeah, I don't know. It's like blue.

1:06:07 This is before the time where they're all sewn into everything.

1:06:10 Yeah, you'll see it here, I think, on this clip. Yeah, there it is. There it is. Great dunk. I'm with you, Skeets. I always think this came against the Mavs in the first round, even though I know it's on Kirilenko.

1:06:21 Yeah. And right by Darren Williams.

1:06:23 Yeah, exactly.

1:06:24 Big Darren Williams.

1:06:24 Weird.

1:06:24 Big Darren Williams.

1:06:25 Yeah, he's very good this season. Jazz win the next two games, win the series 4-1. Fun run from the Warriors.

1:06:31 Oh, yeah.

1:06:32 Eastern Conference Finals, number one Pistons versus the number two Cavs. Some all-time great LeBron moments in this one. Game one, LeBron has 10 points, and he's most remembered for passing to Donyell Marshall. In the corner on the last play of the game, I think the Pistons are leading 78-76 on this one. LeBron has Tayshaun Prince. He's got a lot to do. He's got a layup. He absolutely has a layup.

1:06:55 He does, but also Daniel Marshall wide open.

1:06:59 Wow.

1:06:59 Here's what I didn't notice at the time, noticed looking back now. At this point in the game, LeBron has 10 points, 10 rebounds, and 9 assists. Is he triple-double hunting?

1:07:10 Wow. In a playoff game? Wow. No.

1:07:13 Probably not. I think it's more like we can steal, you know, get this win on the road.

1:07:18 Yeah. Why does he give a crap about getting a triple-double in a playoff?

1:07:21 You're right. This guy never cares about the miracles.

1:07:23 I know.

1:07:24 I know. That was weird. That was good luck.

1:07:26 That one was dissected for days between games.

1:07:31 He doesn't have it, man.

1:07:33 He's obviously super young still, but it's like, yeah, exactly right. He doesn't have the killer instinct. Why wouldn't he take the shot? Come on, Donyell. Knock that down, too.

1:07:42 Game two, Pistons win by the same score, 79-76. Huge Jason Maxfield game off the bench. 15 points, four dunks. Yeah, Jason Maxfield, my guy, eats babies. LeBron missed his last three shots in this one, including... Down one with eight seconds left. Misses like a little runner in the lane. Larry Hughes grabs the board, puts it back up, rolls on the rim like Jonas Valanciunas back in the day.

1:08:03 So people were crushing LeBron at this point. Cavs win game three and four, though. LeBron, huge games. Game three, 32-9-9, 12 points in the fourth quarter. Scored or assisted on 12 of the last 14 points in your face. Game four, 25, seven and 11, including 13, four and three in the fourth quarter, which sets us up for game five. The LeBron takeover game scored the Cavs final 25 points, all 18 in the overtime periods. He forced overtime with a dunk.

1:08:30 He won the game. in second overtime with a game-winning layup, and the Pistons send basically no help at him at all. They're just like letting Lindsey Hunter try and guard him on the perimeter. Lindsey Hunter and Chauncey Billups. Very weird. Chauncey Billups misses a three-pointer at the end of regulation.

1:08:45 Also had the one at the end of second overtime that would have done it, would have won it, sorry, for the Pistons. LeBron finishes with 48-9-7. Cavs win, 3-2 lead, heading back to Cleveland. I watched this back, and the thing that caught my eye the most was Drew Gooden's haircut. Oh yeah. We had that little ducktail patch on the back.

1:09:04 I was going to say, is that what we called it? Yeah, like a ducktail. That's what it was called. Yeah, yeah. What a look.

1:09:08 What a look, man.

1:09:10 Yeah.

1:09:10 Ken Rich Williams has sort of brought that back a little bit with his crazy hairstyle, but this was one of a kind back then.

1:09:16 Yeah, bald with just the patch in the back. Crazy look. Cavs were feeling good, though. Game six, Cavs blow out the Pistons. LeBron 20-14-8. Boobie Gibson, 31 points and five for five from three as the Cavs advance to the NBA Finals.

1:09:30 So LeBron heard all the criticism early in the series and then went killer mode. And it just almost single-handedly beat the Pistons there down the stretch.

1:09:40 In the Western Conference Finals, the three seed Spurs and the four seed Jazz. Games one and two, same script. Spurs get huge leads. Jazz make it interesting. Spurs pull out the wins. Game three, Jazz blowout. Game four, controversial. Spurs take 41 free throws. 19 of 25 in the fourth quarter. They make more free throws than field goals in this game. 30 to 28. Manu went 11 of 13 at the line in the fourth quarter. The Jazz, meanwhile, were whistled for four technicals in the fourth quarter. Jerry Sloan and Derek Fisher get ejected. Jazz fans start throwing stuff on the court. They can't even do the postgame interview with Tim Duncan afterwards. According to the Deseret News, empty water bottles, coins, wrappers, Carmex, towels, and soft mini

1:10:24 basketballs were thrown on the court. At least they were soft. Yeah, they asked Bruce Bowen about it. He said Carmex. I like Carmex, but I don't know if I want to use it. I don't know where it's been. Carmex has been around that long?

1:10:34 I don't know where it's been.

1:10:37 I don't know where it's been. Game five, the Spurs blow out the Jazz. They never trailed. Led by as many as 29. Spurs win. 4-1. Domination. Oh, Car-Mex. Car-Mex. I was thinking Car-Mex. I'm like, what? Car-Mex.

1:10:50 First I was like, Car-Mex has been around that long? Okay, yeah, the lip balm.

1:10:53 Gotcha, gotcha.

1:10:54 The lip balm, yeah.

1:10:55 Bruce Bowen's lip balm. Sherry's Berries. Remember those? Yeah. NBA Finals. The three seed Spurs versus the two seed Cavs. This is LeBron's first finals, the Cavs first finals. Meanwhile, the Spurs are trying for their fourth title in nine years. This is the first Mike Breen, Mark Jackson, Jeff Van Gundy broadcast on the finals. Snoozer. Honestly, a snoozer. It's a sweep for the Spurs. LeBron, four for 16, 14 points, four assists and six turnovers in game one. Tony, Timmy and Manu have huge games. LeBron in game two, a little bit better, 25 points, but 9 of 21 shooting, 6 assists, 6 turnovers, 30, 23, and 25 for Tony, Timmy, and Manu. Game 3, an ugly one, 75 to 72. Spurs, LeBron goes for 25 on 9 of 23 shooting, 0

1:11:45 for 5 from 3, and missed the 3 that would have tied the game with 3 seconds left. Game 4, the Cavs actually have a second-half lead. They get their first second-half lead in the series in Game 4. Spurs outlast them. LeBron, 24 points, 10 assists, okay. 10 of 30 field goal shooting, six turnovers, not okay. 27 for Manu, 24 for Tony Parker, who won a Finals MVP, first European-born Finals MVP, I believe, as well. Spurs pulled off the sweep, wouldn't happen again until 2018. Robert Ori says this was the easiest of his seven titles because the Cavs were using Spurs plays. Their coach was Mike Brown, who learned under Greg Popovich, so they were running the identical plays. Oh, yeah. We've seen these. We know how

1:12:32 to defend these. We have an idea. We did that all year as well. Yeah.

1:12:35 My favorite thing from this finals with Tony Parker winning finals MVP is that the Cavs should have went to hack a Tony because the stats are hilarious in this series. Tony Parker shot 57% from the floor.

1:12:45 Yep. 57% from three. 53% from the line. He was 10 and 19. He should have went to Hackatoni, man. He couldn't miss from the actual floor, but when he got to the line, all the pressure was on. He couldn't hit.

1:13:00 So weird of stats, but yeah, he averaged like 24 and a half. Led the series in scoring. Yeah, significantly led the league, or led the Spurs in scoring, at least. I know LeBron got some points, too, but yeah, this was a snoozer. And then we got the postgame, obviously, yeah. Tim Duncan saying, hey, don't worry, this will be your big young man to LeBron.

1:13:19 Yeah, absolutely, yeah. And the sweeps always help sort of the secondary players in their chance to win a Finals MVP. That Tony Parker, like, we could have seen it this year with OGN and OB. Like, if the series is shorter, it's different. You know, Anthony Davis, it could have helped out. You know, I think Manu Ginobili could have been their 0-5 Finals MVP, but it was a long series. Spurs pissed it. But when you get a shorty... You give it to somebody who's not the most important.

1:13:47 I hear what you're saying, though. You're like, if this 06-07 versus the Cavs, if it goes 06 or 07, it's more likely in a Spurs victory that it just goes to Tim Duncan probably in the end.

1:13:56 Yeah, it's probably fair.

1:13:59 There it is. The least watched NBA finals until the bubble. This was a dark era for the NBA. 07, I mean, it's fun to talk about it now, but at the time, you're like, ugh. One conference is dominating. LeBron is on his way up. He hadn't quite gotten there, and he's like, I don't think he was super polarizing at this point yet, but people were excited to dunk on him for passing to Daniel Marshall and then shooting 36% in the finals.

1:14:22 Yeah, it was. Yeah, it was a dark era for a few reasons. I mean, Malice to Palace a few years later, so there's still like the hand coming down from David Stern. Yeah, the East stinks versus the West. That's really bad. And for LeBron, it stinks too, playing with Drew Gooden and Zydrunas Olgazkis and Sasha Pavlovich coming up, you know. So he was getting ready to leave. Yeah.

1:14:42 The only exciting thing was, like, can he do it by himself, basically?

1:14:44 Yes. Because he did it against the Pistons. Exactly. Can he do it now against the Spurs? Yeah.

1:14:48 And the answer was no.

1:14:49 No.

1:14:50 Because they have a bunch of Hall of Famers. And then other guys, like vet guys, like Robert Horry, Finley, Brent Barry, our guy.

1:14:56 Bones on our roster.

1:14:57 So other guys, yeah.

1:14:58 So an anticlimactic ending to a wild season. We had a new ball, a big fight, a huge trade, legendary playoff upset, LeBron's first real playoff moments. a controversial league decision, and then a boring finals. Main characters, Spurs, Suns, Mavs, Warriors, LeBron, the Nuggets, and Gilbert Arenas.

1:15:15 Yeah.

1:15:16 And to me, this was like the first big season of the NBA blogosphere. Yeah. When I started becoming aware of it, at least. For sure. Yep. Fun season. Great deep dive. Love it.

1:15:25 I know fans get a kick out of this, TK, so great work taking us through all of it.

1:15:30 Definitely the postseason. Just iconic, man.

1:15:33 We still talk about half these series and this thing, outside of obviously the finals being a bore.

1:15:38 Yeah, even those jazz teams of the Darren Williams and Carlos Buzos are fun to go through too.

1:15:43 They were awesome.

1:15:44 They were good, man. Very good.

1:15:46 All right, so that is the 06-07 season. We've done two of these now. What do you want us to tackle next if we continue this series? Let's hear your best suggestions. Let us know what season you'd like us to sink our teeth into next. If you're a Survivor fan, coming up at 1 p.m. Eastern, recapping last night's episode four of Survivor 51. It was titled, That's the Magic of Survivor. And it was about two nerds falling in love with one another. Two bros just geeking out. That's the magic of Survivor. That can happen out there on the island. So we'll talk about that. So hopefully you'll join us over at No Buffs. We're back tomorrow here on No Dunks, ranking all 30 teams. Get the tear maker out. We're slotting everybody in, all 30 teams, as

1:16:26 we get closer and closer to actual NBA tip-off. Can't wait until then, Clipper Bros.

1:16:30 You heard it here first. Have a great time. Turn up. Love you guys.

1:16:34 Awesome. Thanks for joining us. And remember, sometimes when you go way back in time, you can kind of conflate moments like where they were, what happened. Did Graydon Gordian think of Gentleman's Sweep in 07? It's hard to place things. Although when you said, I didn't know that, I wonder if that happened in 07. And do you remember why we say that?

1:16:56 I didn't know that.

1:16:57 That was from, you say blogosphere was when this was born. In a similar way, we've been following this guy's world online. It's not blogosphere.

1:17:09 Mo Verney.

1:17:10 Mo Verney.

1:17:10 Yeah, I knew that.

1:17:12 Do you know when Mo Verney said, I didn't know that? Where he was online.

1:17:16 He was at a Raptors game. Correct. And his woes told him that the starter shouted him out. Oh, that's right. I didn't know that. That's what it was.

1:17:23 He taped it and put it on social media. And now we always say, I didn't know that. Thanks starters for the shout out. I didn't know that.

1:17:31 That's right.

1:17:31 Thank you, Mo. Wow.

1:17:32 Thank you, Mo.

1:17:33 Thank you for so much, Mo. We'll see you guys tomorrow. Embrace the day, people.