00:00So years ago, the Browns drafted Johnny Manziel, and the funny little anecdote that was thrown
00:06out there was Jimmy Haslam said that an unhoused man on the street told him as they were leaving
00:14someplace to draft Johnny Manziel, and then Johnny ends up being a bum, and it turns out
00:20that from then on, it's been a bum taught you into drafting a bum, is basically what
00:26fans have called in and said, and I think he was kind of going for a fun story that ended
00:31up being a total disaster, because Johnny's a total disaster.
00:35It made me think of last night, that story, the reason I bring it up, because Kenny, I
00:40think Kenny was just trying to tell a nice story, and I wake up to like 30 tone, I'm not
00:47lying, 30 texts about Kenny apparently having his head up his ass when he said this about
00:53having dinner with the owner of the Cleveland Cavaliers.
00:56It's the coolest thing, and it was like a surprise, like he just kind of surprised us.
01:00I'm not having dinner with Dan every night, right?
01:02It's kind of special.
01:03It was cool that he did that, he made the effort to come see us.
01:07He just had some sage advice, right?
01:09Like, it's like, man, this guy probably knows the team better than me.
01:12He knows these guys better than me.
01:14And until he made me think, you know, especially the J.A. thing, I was like, J.A.'s the key
01:18to
01:18this?
01:19You sure, you know, he was right.
01:20Because Jared Allen ended up having a fantastic game, and I woke up this morning at 3.20,
01:26and it was nothing but a bunch of texts saying that Kenny doesn't know what he's doing.
01:29I'm like, come on.
01:30I think he's telling...
01:31Listen, the owner is a ball knower.
01:33He's a basketball guy.
01:34He knows the game.
01:35Without a doubt, he knows what he's talking about.
01:38However, come on, he's an NBA head coach.
01:44He didn't...
01:44Wait, the people that are thinking...
01:46Hold on, the people that are texting you are suggesting what they needed to...
01:49Kenny didn't know what he was talking about.
01:50They need to run a bunch of plays for Jared Allen.
01:52He's an NBA head coach, and an NBA head coach should know that the game had to go through
01:57Jared Allen.
01:57He shouldn't have to have the owner tell him.
01:59That's what was relayed to me by...
02:01You can look at the phone, man.
02:0330 different people.
02:04The game does not...
02:05You're not playing through Jared Allen.
02:07No.
02:08The point of Jared Allen is, all right, a couple of switches a game, maybe you get a guard pinned
02:14on him, and then, all right, get him the ball.
02:16But the problem is, he's never been a good free throw shooter.
02:18Last night, you know, the man, they all were missing free throws last night.
02:22He missed six, but he was seven to 13.
02:24You'll take that.
02:25But no, do I think against the Knicks, we're running offense through Jared Allen?
02:28No.
02:29I disagree with your friends, Kenny.
02:31Well, they were saying about the game last night against Detroit.
02:35Yes, go ahead.
02:36Let's put a little more context to exactly what Dan said to Kenny in their dinner before
02:40game seven.
02:42You know, I had dinner with Dan Gilbert last night.
02:44He came over to our hotel.
02:45He goes, you know who the key to this whole thing is?
02:48The spark of this is Jared Allen.
02:50I said, really?
02:51You know, people who observe from afar, plus Dan knows the team well and knows these guys.
02:56It was really, I was like, man, I went to my room.
02:59I'm like, man, I'm going to run the first play for him.
03:03I get totally where you're coming from, Kenny.
03:05It sounds like he went, you know, I've never thought about Jared Allen being good at basketball.
03:12He's a pro coach.
03:14Thank you, billionaire owner.
03:15He's a pro coach.
03:16And I, not a lot of people, what do you think Kenny's approval rating is in the city?
03:22We do that.
03:22We did this with Stefanski all the time.
03:24Is it over 50%?
03:28Kenny Atkinson's approval rating.
03:30Is it over 50% in the city?
03:31It might be getting back to 50%.
03:32Yeah, I don't know.
03:33It seems like.
03:34So there's definitely a lot of people who don't really trust Kenny, right?
03:36It seems like people act like, had they have had a different coach, they would not have struggled
03:40versus Toronto and struggled against Detroit.
03:44I know Detroit was the series favorite in the seventh.
03:46Who would have been the coach?
03:47The one seed.
03:48You got to have answers, though.
03:49Who would have been the coach?
03:49We do this all the time in football.
03:50It's like, okay, you can give me coaches that you like, but in basketball, I don't hear
03:54a whole lot of alternatives to what you have.
03:56I mean, you could kind of go with the Baragio if you wanted to, but you're really just going
04:01to give me Kenny Atkinson and go, well, Kenny Atkinson can't fit the bill.
04:04Figure it out.
04:05Get rid of him and get somebody else.
04:06So when he says this, it totally reminded me of the Jimmy situation with Johnny, where
04:12it's like, oh, God.
04:13Except, you know, they're going to the Eastern Conference Finals.
04:15The Browns were just a nosedive and a mess out there in the ocean.
04:18Whereas the Cavs are going to the Conference Finals.
04:22The interesting thing to me is, look, everybody just assumed if they lose that game last night,
04:25Kenny's getting fired.
04:26We have questions about Kobe Altman, right?
04:28The wild swings of opinions.
04:31This would have been one of those teams where there would have been so many questions about,
04:35are they moving Mobley?
04:36Did they trade Donovan to get out of having to pay him $70 million a year?
04:39What do they do with the Harden situation?
04:42If they supposedly had a handshake deal that he's going to get two years, who knows?
04:47$80 million, $90 million.
04:48Whatever.
04:49You're going to pay him that late?
04:50Like, we would sit here and talk about all these deals for a team that was in the second
04:55apron, and he's just having dinner with the coach, like, the night before when everybody
05:00has written their obituary.
05:02It is, it is.
05:03I know they make a lot of money in that league, so, you know, they can be professional.
05:07But I do wonder what Kenny was thinking, because there were times in this series where they
05:11would show him on the bench.
05:13And he kind of had this cheesy smile right before the games, like, as he was getting
05:18in his Zen mode.
05:19And you would look and go, what is he thinking about this team?
05:23Does he think this team has what it takes to get past this round?
05:26He's such an honest guy in these settings.
05:28Yeah, but what I'm pointing out is coaches come and coaches go, and we don't need to
05:33necessarily look for things.
05:34Like, I don't think JB Bickerstaff is a bit of a blowhard, and that's coming from me.
05:38JB is a bit of a blowhard.
05:39I never called him stupid.
05:40I don't think he's stupid.
05:42And I don't think that Kenny's stupid.
05:43I really don't know if there are any stupid NBA head coaches.
05:47I mean, there might be a couple out there, but I don't think that Kenny Atkinson is, and
05:50I didn't think that JB was, or is, for that matter.
05:53And it just, I could see it getting a little bit overblown this morning, and I kind of wanted
05:57to head it off.
05:58I understand what Owen's saying.
06:00I respect what Owen's saying.
06:01I know a lot of people kind of took it as if, like, hey, come on, you sound like a
06:04buffoon
06:04when you're saying these sort of things.
06:06He's a fantastic player.
06:07He's outplayed his contract.
06:09Don't say Owen's saying this.
06:09I'm just relating what I'm hearing.
06:11Okay, I'm sorry.
06:12Then relating what you're hearing about it, the people texting me, fine, I understand
06:16what you're trying to say, but I just don't think it's as football style as we always think
06:21it is, where we're just like, that coach is a moron.
06:24I do think Kenny has a problem with his delivery and things.
06:25I mean, he had the whole, James Harden told us to start having walkthroughs in the ballroom,
06:30and he had never done that before.
06:32But the way he comes off when he says these things are like, these are the light bulb coming
06:37on for the first time.
06:38I think, obviously, he's a pretty good coach.
06:41Or he wouldn't have even got a shot to be an NBA coach in the first place.
06:45It's just, at this point, we're down to the final four teams to be nitpicky on what Kenny
06:50says.
06:50I do think it's a little overblown.
06:52And I agree.
06:53And there we go.
06:54That's where it needs to be.
06:56I just think, guys, Jared Allen is at this stage, and what he is, remember, he's always
07:02like, oh, we have two bigs, two seven-foot, he's not seven feet.
07:06He's not, like, if you, if he stood next to Victor Webby, he would be like two feet, it
07:11would look like he's two feet shorter, okay?
07:12He's not, he's not the quintessential classic center.
07:15So he can't just take advantage of the matchups that people think he can take advantage of.
07:19What he can do is come over, help provide big-time rim protection the way he has in this series,
07:27and then the activity, right?
07:30He'll never, maybe two game sevens, he's had terrific game seven performances.
07:35Maybe we can officially put to bed, the lights are bright, you know, the comment he made,
07:39you know, a few years ago.
07:39If you're playing the Knicks coming up tomorrow.
07:42But I'm saying, he's just, has he not, has he not just had two mammoth game sevens?
07:46Like, so, you know, fine, use the words against him, maybe that'll fuel him, maybe that's
07:51bulletin board material, but a guy like Jared Allen, he's not going to be, he's not going
07:56to be able to be consistent every game, that's not who he is, but man, was it awesome to see
08:01that level of intensity, that's what he does need to have to bring.
08:04He is going to have to bring that intensity.
08:06I'm not, I don't think he's going to play great every series.
08:08This Mitchell Robinson thing, I thought the last time they played the Knicks, we're going
08:13to talk more about this tomorrow with the matchups.
08:15The last time they played the Knicks, they, the rebounding was kind of a draw and our
08:20bigs held up and it's going to have to be that because it is going to be a war.
08:24There are going to be fair hugs underneath the rim for, for the entirety of that series.
08:28You're going to have to say that over and over because the way a lot of people remember
08:31it, when Mitchell Robinson was basically rubbing their nose in it at the end of that
08:34series, like they're going to, you're bringing it up.
08:37That was, it was relatively even like, I think a lot of people will remember that getting
08:40ready for tomorrow, thinking that Jared Allen was just absolutely owned at the
08:43Borens by Mitchell Robinson all, all serious long.
08:45So you're going to have to repeat that.
08:47The only thing I'm saying on Kenny's behalf is that when they were winning 64 games in
08:51the regular season, I think a lot of people just thought it was kitschy and fun and anything
08:55like that.
08:56Now, when they've lost a series to Indiana, which Indiana just beat them because they
09:00were better.
09:01When you've lost a series to Indiana, when you failed to exceed the expectations that are
09:06set there, the lofty goals that are there, there's always going to be those, those
09:09comments that are picked apart.
09:10And I think we got a little bit, at least the people that I talked to, I thought that
09:14they were a little bit too nitpicky about what Kenny said yesterday.
09:17It does come off a little bit goofy.
09:19I will admit that, but I thought he was trying to tell a funny story.
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