The Jason Smith Show with Mike HarmonJason and Mike with all the latest on the Knicks, who are headed to their first Eastern Conference Finals in over 25 years after demolishing the Celtics. The Brockalypse is here. Plus, a visit from Knicks Insider John Schmeelk!
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Bye Jalen Brown. Bye, see you next season. Jalen see you, Jalen Brown, see you fouling out in the third corner. Bye, goodbye. Don't forget to write Yay. There's bors Ankas sit next to him. He's not playing either. Goodbye, goodbye, bye everybody. Hello, Happy Friday, Happy Friday. The Jason Smith Show with my best friend Mike Harmon. About for over forty years, there's tire recks been open. Customers find the right tires for how, what and where they drive. Ship fast and free back by. Free Road has a protection with convenient installation options like mobile tire installation. Tireraq dot com is the way tire buying should be. Ted Lasso enjoying things courtside the Knicks. I could just listen to this for a second. Two minutes to go in the third quarter, the party is underway at MSG the Knicks lead the Celtice. I should say it like Marv Albert does. The Knicks leave the Celtics eighty nine to fifty one with a minute fifty seven left to go in the third quarter. Uh, it has been all Knicks from the jump. Make it ninety two fifty one. After an og anunobi III, I think Joe Mizuula is gonna call time out and they're all gonna leave. I think the celt just gonna leave and it's just gonna be a big party. Michael Straighthan is excited. This is the look at stuffog you got, you got Marbury there, this is this is a party, Mike Harmon. It is an absolute party. But you're gonna be the disapproving girlfriend with the coat over her arms going we can leave whenever you want to. I know you're having fun, but we can leave whenever you want to. You're gonna play that role tonight. I can already tell. I can already tell, just by your countenance, just by the way you are, just by You're gonna be that. I'm ready to leave I didn't want to go to this party at all. I'm ready to go home.
This is where you have your kid who's hopped up on sugar and you let them run around hoping that at some point they just fall out napping. That's where I'm at right now, because I have already had forty minutes of this, yeah, leading into the start of the show.
Huh.
And I've said for a very long time there's a jealousy to a point of your fandom, okay, and we've tipped past that jealousy of the excitement. Okay, Judy, shut.
Up, Okay, alright, I'm not happy when your teams get, you know, the little success they have, so im I thought you'd be happy for me. But okay, to a point where, because you're screaming at at the Dave, they're going to win to go to the Eastern Conference Finals for the first time since I was in my thirties. Yeah, but that was presumptive when we got to halftime when Kendrick Perkins said they need to find Jesus to play the second half. That's what he said about the Celtics. They're like any closing thought, get Perk. It's like, you know, what they need. And there's a pause, and you know, everybody on sets looking at him, nervous what he's gonna say. To find Jesus, he said they'd go on a diet if the Knicks blew the lead. They would go on a diet. If the Knicks blew this lead at halftime and they have grown it out. Yeah, it is a forty one point Nick lead, now ninety two to fifty one with just under a minute half to go with the third quarter. Bird and Michale are ready to check in for the Celtics in the fourth quarter.
I don't even think they would. They don't want any minutes of this. This is where you go find uh what was that guy's?
Uh?
Oh?
Three? Dino Raja and guys like that. We start bringing those guys in or to get some minutes.
But like Jalen Brown did what Nikola Jokic did the other night, except this is an elimination game and he tapped out.
Porzingis is sick.
I can't make any jokes about him sitting because I have no idea what's going on there. I hope he finds whatever solution he needs in the offseason. He's ready for twenty twenty five. But this is a gutless effort, right, You're down six to start the second quarter. You score four points in the first half of the second quarter, and then it's like you wave the white flag.
Effort. Plays are non existent. You're seeing reaching falls, just sloppy play. It's like no sense of urgency whatsoever. It's like, all right, we're down twenty five, what are we gonna do. Let's run the shot clock down to two. And then you're still contesting every shot, because I mean, that's the celebration of what the Knicks have been here. They smelled the blood in the water like any shark movie and attack the hell out of this squad. So I give full credit to whatever Thibodeau said. It pregame whatever they needed.
In the fuel of the New York media to go finish this thing off, because they never let the Celtics get a quarter breadth, no once. Once it really started to get out of hand in the middle of that second one. Look, and this is why I told you all week when I can't no one believe me when I said I'm fine they lose Game five. I told you we're gonna lose Game five. We're gonna show up and kind of play, all right, well kind of play if the game is there, maybe they try to close in the second half, but it wasn't there. Brunson fouls out of the game five thousand and one quarter, Karl Anthony Townsend foul trouble.
I said, Okay, this is how it's gonna go. But it's gonna be a different story on Friday night. What if I said the last two days, Hey, Friday night, I'm going to the Eastern Conference Finals for the first time in twenty two years. I was absolutely fine because I knew this was the next team we were gonna see on Friday. Bad feeling about Wednesday. I knew it was gonna Hey, okay, we're not gonna get Rick Buker had a great comment on that with us the other night, saying, hey, there's lots of teams in the NBA that come in to close out type games like the Knicks did, and and you know, like we've seen in the playoffs elsewhere as well, where it's been, Hey, we know we're not going to get the calls, and if the calls go against you in the beginning of the game at Sea, we're not getting him let's put it away for the next game. And that's kind of what the Knicks. Didn't we see that it's not just the next thing to do that strategy. Sure, and I toold it, but tonight was gonna be different. It was going to be physical, and it was going to be a Karl Anthony Towns night, and this was how it was going to go. Guys, didn't believe. You thought I was nervous, and Frostburg's going on, what are you gonna say in game se? We are you saying Game seven? I knew we're never getting to Game seven because this was going to be the game we're going to get tonight.
You did not predict a forty point burial and that the Celtics would quit.
I said, I said, when I say fifteen, last night, I said ten to fifteen. When we met our I said, no, no, But there's a difference between Hey, we win by ten because down the stretch we're making free throws and finishing the job right Jalen Bronson getting to the fallout versus I should have said fifty. Here win by fifty. Look in in game betting, I was laughing before it was thirty thirty two.
When you and I were sitting before we started this soire on a big Friday night party for you. Where it sits now, I can only uh, I can only guess because it's it's bloomed.
It is now at it still only thirty three.
If you really want to go that, that's basically saying the Knicks are going to quit and start sipping wine.
Fourth quarter something like that.
They're they're relegated, they have to take half court shots or whatever the case may be. But you know you're officiating. Thing from the other night rings true, and there are a number of times where it's just like, really, that's that's a continuation fall.
Again, it's a thirty point game, so who the hell cares thirty five? But at the time it was thirty five. Karl Anthony Towns gets falled quite clearly. Al Horford bangs and three feet off of this spot and then he goes, ah, forget it, I'll take the extra step and throw the ball up, all right, and one it's like what are we doing? So again the officiating issue, but by that point it's long gone. I mean, Jalen Brown tapped out, so all of the talk and we heard this got really loud about what a better effort they get when Jason Tatum isn't there. Just just hang up your microphones, just quit. You know, the record is not always indicative of what you're gonna get, and you can do things for one game.
We've seen that time and time again in playoffs. We've seen it in the regular season, the heavy underdogs that can come up no matter the sport, and certainly in the NBA, as you alluded to, the all right, it's really not coming together for us. We'll live to see another day.
There's no reason to play another twenty labor and you know, laborious minutes when we've got a game two days. Hence, look at what I did there? Yeah, I went on Dictionary and Literary World. But like when you only play five or six guys, why play them? And actually twenty minutes when you're done? So that strategy the other day certainly comes to bear. But from Missoula and Company, like when when exactly need you quit? Like that's the first question I would ask him in the post thing would you quit? The Knicks? Where the Knicks have been playing tonight, they're playing with a twenty five point lead, like the game is tied. There's been no let up. There's been no open shots for the Celtics because the Knicks have decided, hey we're up by twenty six and everything is fine. There's been no running around defensively. It has been there playing this game. Like in fact, you would think the Knicks, if they win this game, would be winning the NBA Finals. The way that the Knicks are playing, the way fans are responding, we will be going to the Eastern You still have two more rounds to finish, but eight more wins. But hey, we're going to the Eastern Conference finals. And the party is like we're winning it all, like that's what it is. But that's okay, But that's party, like that time watching that that connection right and you know me I.
One of the mantras of the show is the love of live events because very few places in the world you have energy and agreement of what's going on and the energy going in the same spot. So the fans feeding off the effort, the players feeding back off the fans, and that frenzy. You know, every shot is contested. There's no way, all right, I missed the assignment. It's like no, they're still cursing at each other. You had a play down low where Jalen Brown loses the ball and it gets tapped and eventually goes off his leg. They were up thirty five and they immediately three guys are signaling the Thibbadeau to challenge it, which they did and they won the challenge. It's that kind of thing. Look, I'm not saying I don't love it. I just I just have a headache. Look the nick they came out for blood. They came out for blood, and it's a party, right, That's That's exactly what.
May Shalom has been shown ninety seven times.
Spike Lee doesn't have to accost the referee chasing him down the court.
He's just sitting there.
No, doesn't he's got He's gott He's passed because he's got no role the night we don't need. Coach Spikes is just like as happy as he should be when they show them.
He's like, I wanted a contested game.
What do you got, Frostburg.
I mean, this game is so out of hand that the Necks have just rolled out four players to play four on five. They're going with my team is on the court, and one of them is Clyde Fraser and Ben Stiller, Stefan Marbury and bad Bunny.
I think we had done. We probably were winning by thirty three right now, going by twenty five, Uh, we're going so now all right now, I guess twenty eight and a half is gone to an aff kicking on Wednesday. This is very poor Frostburg. So now are you going to be because you're with Obviously we celebrate your So that's where it ends. It doesn't just end after the game. It's you'll celebrate the ends after tonight at eleven o one eleven when you go to give him DAPs help you in the face. Okay, all right, that's and the duel will come in. So the celebration is tonight. Who cares about tomorrow? Celebration tonight, and it's go Indy, go Inde go all right. Bill Bradley is at the game. Yeah, I haven't seen Bill Bradley. I really thought you were gonna start singing. We've got tonight, we who need tomorrow.
I'm doing a little bats making last babe.
Ten minutes to go in the fourth quarter, the Knicks lead the Celtics ninety six to sixty two. We will begin our Knicks Pacers Eastern Conference Finals preview coming up a little bit as we'll have more on this game as the party tonight is going to be off the hook. We've already ordered pizza. We had all kinds of pizza and wings coming. It is a Knicks party Friday. But coming up next as we continue to track the biggest game of the night, all as freely all the time, maybe the biggest game all year. Coming up next, Do we have an NFL story coming your way? Because somebody really got paid? Go New York, go, New York goes And when does Tatum come in? Wow? In the next time, next to next the official time out? You know what, he would have at least wheeled himself around and give you an effort. Actually, Tatum O'Neill is coming in. That's who's coming about that? Shack's brother and TJ click. You know you ruin, you ruin my bad news bears line tysher, you know that you're about to win? All right?
Yeah, it's nothing he says or plays.
He can play.
Everybody wants to rule the world forty five times.
In a run.
I don't care. Yeah whatever, that doesn't matter. That's counts could get killed by the Yankees. Oh there was no baseball ton I don't care. I don't care. I have bigger fish to Friday night than that, Right, I'll worry about it. I'll worry about the Mets and the Yankees tomorrow. That's fine. Bigger fish tonight. First time in twenty two years, we're going to the Eastern Conference Finals. Okay, it's all good. Where's oj That's coming up next? Right here, Jason and Mike Fox Sports Radio. From searching online to asking your friends and family, there are lots of ways to look for jobs, but what if he had one team that can help you find the right role. That's where Express Employment Professionals comes in. Your local Express Employment Professional's office is your one connection to endless job opportunities. With just one application, they can help you find a job at a company that fits your needs. Visit expresspros dot com and as always, Express never charges job seekers a fee. Express knows when companies are hiring, offers benefits and competitive pay, and in just one interview, they're prepared to present you to multiple companies that fit your needs. Go to expresspros dot com to get started, find your nearest location and discover for yourself what it's like to have support in your job search. You can also start your job search through the Express Jobs app. Download it today to search jobs, apply and contact your local Express team that's Expresspros dot Com. To start your job search today, Go New York, Go New York.
Be sure to catch live editions of The Jason Smith Show with Mike Harmon weekdays at ten pm Eastern, seven pm Pacific on Fox Sports Radio and the iHeartRadio app.
It's like we're counting down to New Year. All the shots outside Madison Square Garden. Everybody's cheering. Hey, the ball is dropping. The ball is dropped.
What do you think the security cost is across the city of New York?
Oh man, You know, not a great night to start the subway series with the Mets. And then you want to talk about overtime being put in for by police and first responders.
Hey, I've been retired six years. Look I need you for three nights.
We got the baseball series that got whatever the hell goes on with the Knicks eight and a half to go in the fourth quarter. The Knicks lead the Celtics one oh four to sixty eight. Ac Earl has checked in for the Celtics. I think you're think it's my guy. All I want to show all the love I can all the obscure Celtics from like the early two thousands and the late nineties when they were done winning and it was hey, we're trying to make it work with Dee Brown, all right, let's go. Yeah, good times those late nineties trading cards are like, wow, look at those Celtics. And then you eventually got to Antoine Walker. Oh yeah, we'll got to.
Yeah, we'll get to eventually you got to. But yeah, no, you had a number of years with Finn Baker.
Yeah, sure, sure, sure, sure, yeah we'll get that. We'll get that. Then Baker is one of my heroes though.
I mean the amount of money that guy made and then in his post career, I mean he did he did well.
It is a It's going to be a Knicks final four in the NBA. I just think about this for a second. In the final four of the NBA, it's going to be the Knicks. The Pacers who are synonymous with the Knicks. It's like they're the Washington Generals for the Knicks that last year when they won. But we got a little something something for you already, don't worry about it. So the Knicks and Pacers are synonymous. Then in the West is Devincenzo and Julius Randall. Okay, Nicks up until last year part of their run, and probably Hartenstein. So okay. So now we are just claiming every all Knicks Final four. It's like it's a very It's like a Hallmark movie. It's a very Nicks Christmas Very Knicks Final four. How many times did they show that Villanova commercial tonight? Oh lots, lots. Did that guy to have the heavy rotation for this one? Because it was a Nick celebration. Yeah, it's been a celebration since halftime. It's been a this is I told you tonight was going to be a party. Yeah. In the middle of that second quarter, five point fifty five left in the second quarters when the Celtics finally scored their third basket of the quarter, seventeen for the quarter, and that was it. Why I said I was cool. I got to halftime and like, what do we talk about? This game sucks?
So we'll have more on.
The greatest sporting event in the last five years coming up in a bag. No, dude, I have no time for that tonight, I have bigger I have. I'm going to the I'm going to the Eastern Conference Finals for the first time in twenty two No, no, no, I mean I got bigger fish.
Yesterday we had the guys strike out Otani and then just take the ball. I mean, come on, that was a big I think bobblehead night when he hit two home runs. I did not watch one second of the Mets and the Yankees, not one second. And you know, Mitt the Mets, I've not watched one lying because of that, because you know what, he he didn't have the TVs changed in the back though. I mean we were here in an hour in the game telling.
Me you didn't ausk for thirty seconds of a long time when Soto came out there.
For no, no, I didn't. What not, I didn't fifteen one.
He would have been in his car for part of it. That would have gotten weird.
Not one second. I mean I did see him, you know, you know, tip his cap to the crowd. Uh him. Yeah, that's okay, that's fine, that's great. I will worry about that tomorrow. That's a sixth to your final as my uh as my high school jim teacher, mister Williams used to say, that's a story for another day. There's a different story tonight, one ten seventy four with six minutes left to go. But we'll have more on the Nicks and the Celtics. However, big story from the NFL today, Right, we thought the Broncolypse was coming, all the different stories we had leaping up to it, and the Brocolypse is here. Brock Party in the forty nine ers agree to a five year, two hundred and sixty five million dollar contract, one hundred and eighty one million dollars in overall guaranteed money. That is a fifty five million dollar a year average for brock Purty, who will likely see all of this money. Being his fourth year in the league, young enough, he's gonna and look, at some point it will seem like a bargain year, three year four. You know, Perty's only getting fifty five million dollars. So Perdy gets paid. We thought it was coming, and it's here. And there's two big things I can tell you. Why did Perdy get paid? Why did he get paid this kind of money when he has been a good quarterback? Right, he's been good? Has he been a top quarterback in the league. No, but he's been good, right. He had a really good promise his first year in a little bit more than half a year, had a really good second year, got to the super Bowl. Not a good third year, right when the when the weapons got hurt and he didn't have as many the forty nine ers weren't very good. Right, So that that's his year, Budge. Generally how things work in the NFL, though, if your weapons are no good, But if you're an elite quarterback, if you're Josh Allen, it doesn't matter if you're throwing the Stefon Diggs or if you're throwing two Quandre Diggs. Doesn't that.
But there's always going to be a gap between guy one and two and the next ten.
Yeah, but but there's gonna be players that make other players better, that are good no matter who they're throwing to. And then there's players who are good when they have a lot of weapons around them. I've played two thirds of his passes. It was twenty and twelve with a ninety six rating. Like all the things, all the metrics we want to do, I don't know. Yeah, twenty and twelve, is that fifty five million dollars a year. Well, that was Matthew Stafford last year. But I'll tell you, I'll tell you who's twenty in twelve. Yeah, okay, But also the Rams got within a hair's breadth of the Super Bowl. So there is that where the Niners were sitting and they say, and they had it packed in beginning of December.
Set if we're going to do that, you did the stat things, so twenty and twelve is not fifty five.
You want to lean a little bit more well, and also talking about a guy that won a Super Bowl, that's been to a couple of super bowl you know, Matthew Stafford's kind of had a good one in the last year. And last year he was much better the second half a year than Broughck perty was and he nearly got his team to the Super Bowl and his guys and they were playing well down the streets.
You want to.
Argue with me about something that I'm not arguing with you about. I'm saying brock Purdy is pretty good. I don't know what. Why? Why are you just mad that the Knicks are winning?
Brought up his stats and dis man so I.
Brought up a stats. Is that a great year? Is twenty and twelve a great year?
No?
Is it a good year? Yes? Did I say it was a good year. It's a good year. It's a good year. The next are winning. I'm sorry, I'm sorry the Knicks are winning, but they're winning. I said it was a good year. It's a good year. He got He played pretty well. He's a good quarterback. Why did he get paid? He got paid. A lot of reasons is because of where he came from in the draft. He's mister irrelevant, right, so when he comes in all of a sudden, it looks like you got really lucky. And I'm sure the Niners have had to hear and John Lynch has had to hear the last few Boy, look how lucky we got. They know we got lucky. We drafted a guy that we didn't even know if he was going to make the team, and here he is now potentially our franchise quarterback who got us to a Super Bowl and young and suddenly is someone that we didn't have to spend a big high draft pick on. We got really lucky, and we can't let the lucky guys leave, because, boy, if you if you got lucky on a guy and let him leave. What does that tell you? Now, flip this around, if instead of being mister Irrelevant, brock Purty was taking third overall in the draft like Trey Lance, what would people be saying? What would be his contract situation? Are you ready to give? Are they ready to give brock Purty fifty five million dollars a year with the number three overall pick in the draft and what he's done so far? Instead, it's more, eh, maybe we'll figure out something, maybe we'll franchise you something else. But he's not getting fifty five million because the pedigree of him coming into the league. The team would expect more, and the city would expect more, the fans would expect more, and the whole push behind why the universal love for brock Purdy is out there wouldn't quite be what it is because he seems like he's a lucky fine so let we have to reward him and keep him. Whereas if he was a number three overall pick, it would be, yeah, he's been good, But is he a guy we want to commit to? Is he really? When you come with that high a pedigree, there's gonna be a different way you're looked at Now. It shouldn't matter because once you get into the NFL, you get to the NFL and it's okay, Well, it doesn't matter if a guy was taking three overall or mister irrelevant. What you do on the field is what matters. But because of where he came from and where he could have been, there's a completely different outlook for his career. And part of the reason why he got paid is because he was he was a lucky find. He was he was a he was a pot of gold at the end of the rainbow. That's what and that's part of the reason why Perdy got this fifty five million dollars deal.
At some level, you could go to the we've we've been able to underpay for several years, so you're owed because we certainly see those deals back end of negotiations, go back to Kobe's final deal and so many others where you're like, is that guy really should he be getting this money? He's like, well, he's worth more than what he is doing necessarily on the court. Right when you look at what he guys are to an organization for perty, you're also looking at the larger quarterback landscape where he is whether whether he can be great again as you reset the offense. Right, a lot of those guys are gone. You're hoping Christian McCaffrey comes back. You're hoping George Kittle is the guy he was the second half at some point father time gets him too, right, or wrestling or he becomes a wrestler or the other one. But I mean, are you Debo's gone? Like you know, you've got all these moving parts. Yeah, Jennings came up big for them. So you're hopeful that, all right, a year of health whatever you reconstitute that offensive line that you trust your brain, your brain trust that you're going to be able to make him that guy he was two years ago. If all the component parts are there, and the quarterback landscape, look at look at what it's a mess, right, we can say all we want, all right, next year's draft class looks good, all right in theory, and guys can't take shots in theory. But we've done that how many times? Right, and even brought with rock per He's class a bunch of guys that never made a damn bit.
Of a move movement in the NFL. So you found the lucky penny, as you like to say.
So, Yeah, there's a there's a little bit of that of of hey, now the expectation, but once you start playing. Yeah, I mean we've heard for two years. Should they paid brock Purty. That's been a very hot debated topic, certainly in the world of sports TV and radio.
And I look around and like, where.
Where do you place him?
He's still top ten, top twelve guy, Right, he's getting paid a seventh just because he's the next man up.
Yeah, look right, It's.
All about timing. And that's and that's the other reason why did Perdy get paid? Because we're starting to ask the wrong questions when a quarterback gets paid fifty who deserves fifty million? Fifty five million? Because that's a big way brock Purty deserved this money. I can give you a better answer than that, because I'll tell you it doesn't matter if you think he deserves the money or he doesn't. When a team, teams know that it is miserable without a quarterback, they know life is absolutely miserable because they see the teams that every year try to churn through and try to find a quarterback. Jets have been trying to find a quarterback for thirty years. Like when you find a guy who all he's got to do is be a periphery top fifteen quarterback, right like party, you know Purty is he at his best, He's a periphery top ten, probably more of a twelve or fifteen, but he's someone that is good enough you can win with him, and he doesn't need to be replaced. And when teams have a quarterback like that, now we're gonna keep him. We're gonna give him what we need to because A, it's a quarterback and B it's miserable with that are we gonna do better if we let him go? This is why Trevor Lawrence got fifty five million, tremendously overpaid, because the Jaguars way, we took him high, and boy, things could always be worse even though he's not that great. Why did Gino Smith get a three year extension with the Raiders? They've been living. They know what life is like without a quarterback. So let's take a guy who probably is, you know, a league average, maybe a heiny bit more than league average at his best. This is why guys get these extensions, because they know how miserable life is. So it doesn't it's not that a guy needs to be a top seven, top eight guy to get paiding more. It's just if you're a top fifteen quarterback or someone we don't feel the need to replace, we're gonna give you a lot of money because we know how miserable life is without a quarterback. Those two reasons, that's why I brought perty got paid. Well, you're the guy in the room.
So you know, in the case of the Jaguars, it's a have we failed this guy and we don't want him to go be successful somewhere else. Right, he was supposed to be the chosen one, right, We laugh about it. Use the Star Wars line all the time. Generational guy. That's what he was coming out of college. Didn't they do him right?
Right? Go back to Urban Mile.
If you admire and everything that went down there. If you're shot Cohn or you're sitting there and you're making the evalue, it's like, well, can we give him one more shot? Try to put some talent around him, and maybe it works, right, you make the big swing, you go get a big star to come alongside, and maybe he gets juice from that. But you know, for the forty nine ers, they're one of the few teams where you say organizational stability is something that they come to the table with with the luxury of all right, we've.
Watched Brock succeed.
What are the things that have made him successful in the past, and just owing it to star power is fine?
All right? Ayuk has been good, degrade at times, debo when utilized properly. Before he started carrying the ball eight times a game and getting broken in half, it got cute, right, it works two times a game.
Hey, you know what if we did it five times a game would be even better. Oh wait, he's not eligible to play these last couple of games. The doctors won't clear him.
Damn it.
Maybe we went too far.
But all of that and banking on McCaffrey's legs for another year with the amount of usage, but all of that to say you believe that with the right structure and right players, that Brock perty's that guy. Why go searching in the wasteland that is free agency or the roll of the dice of the draft. You did that with Trey Lance. Yeah you remember that that didn't work?
Yeah, I mean, look, and then because that's that's you know, go to go back to my first point about getting you know, taking you know, and making sure you pay brought party. Also, that gets into that, Okay, well we got lucky getting the guy, and we spent the third overall pick. We traded up to get this guy, and Trey Lance gave them nothing. So that's more pressure to say, we really got to keep Purty because we thought we had the quarterback position right for the next decade. And the guyst even on the team anymore. So that's more of the pressure of we gotta keep Purty. It's look there, you're in a perfect spot right now. If you're a quarterback and you can be a league average guy, you're gonna get paid, and you're gonna get paid a lot. You're gonna get forty fifty million dollars a year. That that's how it's three years ago was you're really good, you'll get twenty five million year. But now we have double bat in the last three years. That's it.
The escalation of the salary. There, wide receivers, cornerbacks, you name it, all the way through down to your edge rushers. Making it what I say, I need to protect sure, I need an attacker, I needed passer.
Ready for a new job, let express employment professionals help, while Express helps people in all industries find work. Our sweet spot is logistics roles and Express never charge of job seekers a fee. Go to expresspros dot com dot's expresspros dot com. Well time to find out what's trending right now in the wide world of sports. From someone who's been called the Boston Celtics of Fox Sports Radio. Oof, she's had a long day and is ready to go home. It's Montys. I mean I have had a long day. I'm not ready to go home just yet.
But that is That was good.
That made me laugh.
Yeah.
It was all Nicks total domination from start to finish against the Celtics. One nineteen to eighty one was the final score. All five of New York's starters ended in double digits, but Jalen Brunson, Karl Anthony Towns, og Onnobi, and mckel bridges all ended with twenty or more points. Jalen Brown, fouled out late in the third quarter for Boston, ended with twenty and was the leading scorer for the Celtics.
So the Knicks are gonna face.
Indiana on Wednesday in Game one of the Eastern Conference Finals. Congratulations to you.
Thank you go New York, New York Go.
On another NBA news, Nuggets bard Aaron Gordon has been diagnosed with the left hamstring strain and his status is in doubt according to ESPN. For Game seven against the Oklahoma City Thunder, which is on Sunday. In the NHL, the Maple Leaves kept their season alive.
Lease Corral get it out at setter, brought to the line and hard to the Neti paccheratte Go fuck paccharatte pounded home at a deflection on a great player to the front of the net. The Lates lead and they hold on.
They beat the Panthers in game six to zero, so they're headed to a game seven. And they were scoreless up until the last ten minutes of the third period and the Maple Leaves pull it out. They stay alive in the NHL playoffs. In baseball, the Pirates are now on top of the Phillies, saying thanks to a three run shot from Alexander Canadio, it's three to one against the Phillies.
Bottom of the seventh inning.
Bottom of the ninth inning, with the Cardinals on top of the Royals ten to three after seven innings, the Astros are beating the Rangers six to two. The Twins, who have won eleven in a row, trying to make it twelve. Right now, they're shutting out the Brewers three zero, and they're about to start the bottom of the ninth inning. In Milwaukee, the Diamondbacks on the scoreboard first against the Rockies, three.
Zero, top of the fourth inning.
The Mariners also on top of the Padres, three zero, bottom of the fourth Angels on the scoreboard first against the Dodgers in the freeway series, to zero, bottom of the second inning.
The Yankees did defeat the Meds six to two.
Aaron Judges batting four fourteen Aaron Judge, he was two of four and today's win Juan Soto wins zero for two with two walks in the loss.
The Tigers held on five to four against the Blue Jays.
Detroit is the first team to reach thirty wins.
Back to you, guys, thanks a bunch, Yes Smith Mike Harmon live from the Fox Sports Radio studios. Coming up next, we'll break down what we saw and I already have my first fearless prediction for the Conference Finals. It's next right here, Jason and Mike Fox Sports Radio.
Be sure to catch live editions of The Jason Smith Show with Mike Harmon weekdays at ten pm Eastern, seven pm Pacific, Fox Sports Radio.
The Jason Smith Show with Mike Harmon Live from the Fox Sports Radio Studios. It is over in New York. It has been over for a couple of hours. But it was a party, the biggest party MSG has seen. There were more. I think there were more stars at the game they showed in the final five minutes than I think at a Hollywood premiere.
Well, I think they all realized they were going to get massive screen time in the final minutes because there was nothing else really going on once you got back into the second.
Halves, like, all right, who else is here?
If you were sitting in Rod thirty seve, yeah, they showed you if you got an opportunity to be on screen in a row.
Who's that guy?
He was the fifth lead of some movie from nineteen ninety seven, But he's here tonight. He was He was in season four of Sons of Anarchy. He played a guy.
Uh, it was a third gang member. Can tell you this a second.
I got a real quick story for we do play the day. I found out yesterday that one of Zoe's teammates on her softball team. Her dad's an actor and was in Sons of Anarchy. No kidding was what had a pretty big role in one season. I was like, oh my goodause because Pam goes because doesn't he look like I said, yes, Oh my god. He ran the one Niners. He ran the one Niners after they killed le Roy sorry spoiler he killed me. He ran the one Niners. I was like, oh my god, I'm like, I want to go say something to him, like, hey, how's the one Niners doing. I was like, oh my good. I'm like, he ran the one Niners.
Gotta be careful though, who I mean, you've had incidents, you know, yeah, urinals in other places that sometimes could get out of sorts.
Yeah, no, No.
I met Bruce Willis at a year at All and it was, you know, it was a little weird. It's a little weird. Started quoting or what.
You'd be Kay, did you every redo moonlighting?
Dude? I miss moonlighting? Oh what a shed lighting. For over forty years, Tirak's been helping customers find the right tires or how, what and where they drive. Ship Fast and Free backed by Free road has a protection with convenient installation options like mobile tire installation. Tiraq dot com is the way tire buying should be. Tire Rack always brings us the play of the day, and well, there's so many plays we could choose from. But how about this when even the most staunchest of diehard Celtics fans had to realize, Okay, it's over for us. When you bury the Celtics, you get to be the play of the day.
Pam gets the rebound with the shot clock turned off. If you want to knock off the champions, you have to play like champions.
And the Knicks did that tonight.
What nineteen eighty one away and the outcome that no one in the NBA saw coming aside for the New York Knicks themselves Nicks and six and they're on their way to the Eastern Conference Finals for the first time at twenty five years.
Oh, that's even better than Deuce McBride shot at the end of the first half. There's your final call, Knicks Radio Network, The Knicks going on. They go to the conference finals every twenty five years, whether you like it or not, Mike Harmon.
No, God, bless, I love the way they play Thibodeau not getting fired. See there you go and everything us and now he's the hero of the New York.
He's the gig in New York.
Again. I'm the king and he was the You. If you didn't know anything about the game, they had the scoreboard off and they showed you just watched the fourth quarter and you spent most of the time watching TIBs, you would say, are the Knicks losing by twenty? I mean, are the Knicks are we have to go to Game seven against the Celtics on Sunday because no matter what they're up, Forty still got my arms fall. It's almost like he's got his arms crazy glued, so he doesn't have to hold his arms up like it's crazy glued together with his arms folded.
Is he found that that's less stress on his shoulders in that position, I think it would be on his back and he's not you know, slump slumping over.
Yeah, I could do. That would have helped Phil Jackson. Was Phil getting out of that chair? I tell you.
But but your you're POINTLATIVEEO.
I mean it is key right because on the broadcast and you and I just sitting there It's like we remember Games one and two, huge leads loss from from Boston. Now again they they beat the snot on him. It's the uh, the bine line. I didn't know whether it was gonna quit first, your spirit or your body. Uh And and well here was both because I mean it was a merciless transaction. But you got that call, and so many people had left to go party in the streets. You had the individual voices coming through. It's been it's been a party since the middle of the second quarter for the Knicks, who were in the conference finals. And I'll tell you this right right away what I've been saying all along. Yeah, see you in a few days. Indiana, got a little something something for you. Off for last year. Nixon four, care for what you wish, you're particular. Don't have a choice. I don't have a choice. We're playing the Pacers. Rick Carlisle is already complaining about the officiating. You can just do already out he's already upset. Well, we're better than the Pacers. We're better than they are. You were last year and then everybody got hurt. You know who we finished. We finished the year. Mark Jackson was playing point guard for us. He was actually joyer celebration. He was this next week he was calling the game and playing point guard for the Knicks. He was doing both at the end of the year last Mark Jackson reference. Yeah, I mean it, Rick Carlo. I'm sure Rick Carlo is having a press conference now. I really really helped the officiating gets a call. I helped the big market teams don't get the benefit of the doubt like they tend to because all the because all the calls and nicks have been getting the last twenty five years in the playoffs, Yes, all of them. I'm sure he's complaining about it now. Which who's the more allegiant to Mark Jackson? I mean he has route, he's got, you know, ties to bowl. Does he hate the Knicks because everybody's on board that bandwagen so he can jump on the other side. I think everybody who was once it's like, what the Knicks are one of those teams where once a nick, always a nick, for for good or bad. Right, Once a nick, always a nick, and so you know he's a nick every They're all ex make sure Jr. Smith is a nick. You saw the video he put out the other night when the Knicks went up to nothing on the Celtics. If you played, if you walked onto the arena wearing a Knick's hat, you're a Nick Jr. Smith in that video, watching it and reacting was making sounds I didn't think were human. The squeakiness, pitchiness, whatever, it got weird, it really did. It's like is he stepping on a cat? Everybody gets excited. It's exciting.
Oh look, I aspired to that.
I'm actually responding to folks on Twitter going, ah, you know, it's not insufferable.
I aspire to that level of energy and excitement. I don't have it. I'm chronicling all the winds in my life. Guess what.
They always end in fives and none of them in twenty twenty five. Listen, you had a long time, you had a pope that could have a squashed the Caleb Williams hate Chicago story. B got you the number one pick in the draft. And the pope doesn't either of those things.
But he didn't do this. No, which is a more Catholic city, Boston?
Oh, you know, Irish or everywhere?
I banded them the Irish, you abandoned the Ie banded them in the abandon the Boston.
Catholics banded the Irish in their.
Daddy let the Knicks. Not only did they win, they rolled right over him and.
He did nothing to stop it. Oh you're like, you're like Delroy Lindo and Sinner's excited to get the Irish beer from Chicago.
Right well, as soon as he says what it is?
I mean, come on, how excited for you when you saw Delroy Lindo pop up.
From that harmonica And I didn't know he was in it.
I didn't know he was in it was.
In See, I didn't spoil those for you.
Oh you got a bad pope man, all of ausly, he went from the toast of the town. He's a bad pope.
Signing grass on baseball, So you Knicks.
In four, we have more on this game and more in another big story out of the NBA coming up next. What is Michael Jordan gonna be doing for NBC? We think we know? This is Fox Sports Radio.
Be sure to catch live editions of The Jason Smith Show with Mike Harmon weekdays at ten pm Eastern, seven pm Pacific on Fox Sports Radio and the iHeartRadio app.
I can relax. The Knicks are in the finals. Relax for a few days until Wednesday night. I can relax and worry about the Mets in the Subway Series. Relax, the Knicks are in there. We're gonna sweep the Pacers. Conference finals. Finals, doesn't matter. Finals. It's like a finals is there. It's like Andy Bernard when they say, hey, how is management? How is anger management training? He goes, well, management training? Oh, okay, okay. The Knicks are in the East Finals. They will take on the Pacers after their burial of the Celtics tonight. Joining us now from outside of Madison Square Garden at the top of a light pole because Knicks fans is celebrating like they won the finals tonight. Nicks insider John Schmielkey is on Twitter at Shmilk, longtime friend of the show. How you doing man? You sent me that picture of you at the game. I can imagine it must have just been an entire party since midway through the second quarter.
Heere, I just drove through the Lincoln Tunnel. I did not need my car to get home. I could have floated home or flown home. I just don't want to have to go back into the city tomorrow morning to get my car. So this is just convenience.
I could have lumped myself.
From thirty third Street and Eighth Avenue and set my butt back to Central New Jersey.
Baby.
Oh man, twel look, still work to do. Let's be very clear about that. Still work to do. You gotta beat the Pacers, but twenty five years is a long time. Enjoy the stick fans.
I'll tell you I no one believed me on the show this week when I said, oh, they lose Game five. I said, I'm fine, we are gonna blow the doors off of them in game six. It's gonna be different. It's gonna be officiated differently. The Knicks are gonna be more physical. They're smelling blood. They kind of halfway went for it in game five, and they all thought you was crabbed. Oh you're just you're just trying to You're trying to show us you're not nervous. I'm like, no, we are gonna win big on Friday night, and there we go. It happened.
Yeah. Look, I did not think I'd be sitting there in that building tonight and the Knicks would be leading by forty one points in the third quarter.
That I mean, that place for twenty four minutes of basketball and like an hour and a half of real time was just a party. The only thing people got mad about is that Thibodeau wasn't taking the starter. Than that place was absolutely lit, guys, And look, I said, as you know, twenty five years since they've been to the conference finals, that might have been the best defense I've seen a Nick team play in twenty five years too. They shut the Celtics down the count bridges. He raced, Derek White, Jalen Brown sattled out in the third quarter. It was utter domination in every facet of the game.
At what point did the did you think the Celtics quit?
When?
When did the spirit leave the body?
I think when Shireman made an appearance in the third quarter. Look, I think it was a point at the end of the second quarter where the Celtics I think in one three and it looked like they were about to make a run. And then the Knicks counted with like three straight baskets and they're up by thirty points at a halftime. The game wasn't over yet, but it was darn close. And then you know, Celtics made a couple of shots to start the third Knicks bounced right back. They got a fight, you know forty and then guys, that was it, you know it Badulla pold everyone and man, just what a game. And again it's I don't think fans understand how I mean they do, but if you'd the root for the next how bad the last twenty five years have been, or at least twenty the last twenty five years watching you know, Ron Baker and Kyle O'Quinn, who is probably one of the better guys you got to watch.
I mean, my gosh, Alexi Sived who Nick fans were in love with, Damian Boxon, my gosh, go through the list. It was bad, David.
Fizdale's regime, Larry Brown.
Four year, my god is say it?
Thomas it was.
It's as bad as.
It was the lowest of the lows. And to finally get to see this in that building for a night, it was a blast and it was so much fun.
So as we look at the squad because Jason and I were really celebrating, and I did so maybe a little muted because my guy's been at volume. You know, you turn into eleven on spinal tap.
He broke the knob off John I mean's just there's just no about it. But all of that, with the defense still up thirty, still challenging.
Plays, all of that is like, I like it.
The I believe you actually said, you know, don't don't get off their necks, and they didn't.
They didn't, they did not lay it off. And look, if this team can play like that defensively the rest of this postseason, they can win an NBA championship. If they can keep that level of intensity on defense. Hall Ansity Towns was locked in.
Boys.
You do not see that very often for a non defense. That dude was locked in. If he can play like that for two more rounds.
The Knicks can win a championship.
That's not hyperbolic, that's back. That's where we're at. This team has not played that way consistently this year. They've been maddeningly inconsistent. But if you can bring that type of effort defensively, you the Knicks can be NBA champions in the Year of Our Lord twenty twenty five.
The Knicks are here to save the playoffs, John, They're here to save the playoffs because we got Minnesota and maybe Oklahoma City and the Pacer. The Knicks are here to save the playoffs.
Wait wait, you're telling me Mike Silver doesn't want in Indiana, Minnesota, Indiana, Oklahoma City NBA Finals. But you said not have any luck on this planet since the u A Lottery, they have that zero luck. They've gotten no help.
It's time to start pulling some strengths. Baby, you're gonna get the big market into the finals.
Adam Silver, what well, Hey, that's it we's been. But look at where we're at. John Listen, It's already gonna be a Knicks Final four. It's gonna be like a Wholemark Christmas movie because it's the Knicks and the Pacers who are synonymus with the Knicks in the playoffs, Randall and de Vincenzo and probably Hartnerstein. It's an entirely Knicks final four. It's everything we need right now.
Look, this goes back to the nineties and Nick Pacers, where they've kind of went back and forth, like neither team dominated in the nineties. One year the Pacers would win, then the Knicks would win. Well, guess what, boys.
Payback's a bitch, hare Cult's Nick the lots of the faces last year, Kyrie.
Halliburn, look He's a really good player, but he is such a perfect like sequel to Reggie Miller. He's lanky, he's skinny, he fires threes, he's annoying, he flomps heavy.
He's like Reggy Miller.
Not as good, but reincarnated. This could not be. It's just it's the nineties all over again, and it's gonna be so much fun. But you're right, Look whoever gets out of the West that if you're a Nick fan, I would root for the Denver Nuggets. I want no part, no part of the Oklahoma City Thunder. So if I'm a Knicks fan, I root for Denver. Maybe you guys disagree, but look, that was a hell of an effort.
And guys, I can't believe I'm saying that the.
Knicks have a real chance to win an NBA title this year. I can't believe I'm saying it on the radio to millions of people. But them's are the facts, boys.
And you know I love that. Well, all Knicks, like you and I. We're all celebrating like we won the title. They're climbing lightholes, we're all talking about who the Knicks are going to play in the finals, and it's like they've been to there. We gotten out of two rounds of the playoffs that but it's like we won the whole thing tonight.
Hey, look like I said, that's when the first question, boys, you ask me, and what I say, there's still work to do. You did not put this team together to win two rounds in the playoffs. You put the teams together to win an NBA championship. But there's a realistic window here. You know, the Knicks finish of the day at home and they have a homeportant Fanta in the Eastern Conference title compute for a second boy, all right, and by the way, if the Timberwls go to the finals, you know who's gonna have the home court advantage in the NBA Finals two.
You're New York next. So this is real.
There's work to do. They have to keep playing well, but there is enjoy the series win. Plenty of work to do. But this is real. You know, I'm always on the poor cold water on stuff. I'm very realistic. I've seen too much. You guys have seen too much as Nick fans.
It always goes wrong.
They have a real shot here, that is real.
I gotta ask the obvious question. First you John dn Smith, You'll just punch me, is uh? You know, after the euphoria wears off and you punch yourself out and you go to sleep. How soon did the nightmares of Reggie Miller come back?
You think we're gonna sleep, Well, eventually you're.
Gonna pass on. I'm not saying it's a it's a natural. Hey, I'm going to be thing. Eventually, he's just gonna collapse somewhere.
Hey, look, Cheery. Here's the thing about Reggie Miller. Reggie Miller had some really awesome moments against the Knicks. The Knicks also had some really awesome moments against Reggie Miller. They knocked him out of the.
Playoffs more than once.
In the nineties.
So yes, Reggie got the Knicks a couple of times, and a couple of times in heartbreaking fashion. But you know the Nicks beat to go to the NBA finals. Four Pacers boys. So yeah, Reggie Miller. You hate him, he's he's the worst.
But Nick seat him, and now it's coming to beat Tyler Barton too.
NIX insider John Schmilkey, he's on Twitter at sch milk. You can find him there are at the top of any kind of light pole somewhere in the New Jersey metropolitan area. After the win tonight, John, thanks a bunch, buddy. We'll talk to you during the East Finals.
All right, I'm gonna land in New Jersey.
I'll talk guys.
Nick the conference.
Titles, let's go it, Nix Insider, like Nix Insider, Let's go I mean, I mean, it was great.
And now it's in between the.
Going to sleep when the knickser hoists and hilario'brien trophy. Now I realize this is a little bit of hyperbole. Okay, it's a little bit of hyperbole because but going into this city, you know, thinking about this the last col and I was thinking, honestly, I was thinking about this coming into work tonight as as I'm listening and the Knicks are just pouring it on the Celtics and I'm beeping, laying on my horn, I'm banging my horn and I'm screaming in my car up until tonight.
Did you cause that accident that deleted me at your twenty cars?
You know, I did not thinking about this right in my lifetime. Okay, Patrick Ewing has been the greatest Nick. All Right, Hall of famer, got the Knicks to two finals, multiple All Stars, Right, yeah, you know, failed a little bit. I keep thinking of showing that miss in the Eastern Conference Finals in ninety five when he just finger rolled it out well fer rolls, I mean dunked the ball. But after Kewing, Patrick Ewing generally has been viewed as the greatest Nick. I mean Sanitysanity had those couple of weeks he had. He had a few weeks that was good. He didn't make it his number two. He didn't even make it to the end of the season. I realized this is now the first time that Brunson has even gotten the Knicks as far as the Eastern Conference finals. But you know, thinking back, you know, hey, Ewing brought the Knicks out of absolute obscurity.
They were terrible for so long. Bent up envelope showed up.
It wasn't bent. It was cold. Okay, just it wasn't bent. It wasn't the envelope cold. It was cold. It was cold. It was really really cold. I can't touch this, but uh, quite honestly, now, if US Knicks fans who's the greatest Nick of all time, they'll all tell you. Jalen Brunson a little bit prisoner of the moment, but also a little bit of the Knicks and bringing the big Knicks back from obscurity over the last years when they had all kinds of stars come in to try to do it right that all kinds of stars come in. Look, can we do it? Can we make it? And Jalen Brunson has done this. He's taken less money. He is. He is more beloved in it as a by Knicks fans than Ewing ever was. Ewing was great, but it was ah, we fell short in the finals here, we fell short in the finals here, and really the one finals we could have won twenty five years ago. He tears his achilles when we could have beaten the Spurs, but that you know, it wasn't his fault. But Brunson has been able to persevere and lead the team past where anybody thought they could. You has to. He is he is the He is the greatest Nick of all time right now. He's the greatest.
But there's a couple of things that also go into it.
I mean, Ewing was notoriously not a guy that did a whole lot of interviews, and other than the quote of we make a lot of money, and we spend a lot of money when when we were talking about work stoppages, he was a guy that didn't really have the best relationship. He's also a guy that the weight of the world and expectations were there frozen envelope theory. He's aside decorated career at Georgetown that we watched every minute of. Right, that was when college basketball was one of the rulers of our sporting world. And you watch these guys, you got to know them, whether you liked them or not. Between he Alonso Morning to ken Ba mctombo and John Thompson like they were and then you had Alan Iverson, I mean, you just had this squad that we paid attention to. On a whole other level, Jalen Brunson was the guy that was the also ran when Lucas showed up in Dallas. He's short, with you know the big back porch, right, He's not the quick guy, he's not lanky, he's not the prototypical star of the NBA. Oh, and he's a colossal smart ass at the microphone. So he's very embraceable and he's got that workmanlike thing that wins. He's not some feet right like that that usually disqualified center.
What we talk greatest of all time? What do we do? We don't talk about Korean and Wilt. They get just put off in their own corner.
And you know it's like, ah, whatever, they were seven feet tall, Like, let's talk about these guys.
Jalen Brunce is that guy at a whole other level telling you Brunson is now the greatest nick of all time? Any nick fane, that's really sad. I know it's sad. You even talking about Carmellow and it's okay's better than Carmelo. Jalen. I mean, I'm just.
Saying you you just went right past. We got to insane. Any reference. He's alive. That game you can be there, Jileheim, the only title Mellow.
Can be there. That's fine. Jalen Brunson's greatest. It's a metal stand. I mean, actually is Mellow fourth? This is the fourth man? Probably maybe fourth? Yeah, probably because it's a really sad Mount Rushmore. But hell, I'm telling you get you there. Brunson is now the greatest nick ever. And it's crazy and it's a little sad, but it's true.
