Best of NBA News Part 2: MELO NOT on Top 15 NBA All-Time Pure Scorer list, Spurs SNAP 6-year playoff drought

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27:18Bleacher Report Top 15 purest scores in NBA history Steph Curry was one Kevin Durant was two Michael Jordan was three Joel Embiid is four LeBron Shea Girvin Doncic Jokic Kobe Giannis Kyrie O 'Neal Mitchell Or mellow it. Mellow it. Hey, and Joe. This might be the worst list somebody's ever, ever put together. Okay, okay, okay. I'm going to say, hey, Joe, I didn't play in the NBA, Joe. I didn't play in the NBA. Listen, I'm not a huge, you know, NBA watcher. Of course, I know the game. I understand the game a little bit. But the list is garbage because he done wrote it off about seven, six, seven, eight names, and Kobe name wasn't mentioned in that goddamn top five.

28:04So just take that list, ball it up, and throw it away. I'm just – Just throw it away. Now, Steph Curry, rightfully so. Rightfully so. He's number one. Who going to argue that? You can't argue that. Now, outside of that, Kobe got to be somewhere. Got to be in the top five, Joe. I know I'm not tripping. No, no, no, no. You ain't tripping, Ojo. I don't know who be doing these analytics or whatever it is they do, who be making these predictions. But you can't have Melo. If you ain't got Melo in there, that man wasn't nothing but a pure score. You know what I'm saying? Yes, sir. He top 10. I think he's top 10 in the NBA history in scoring so come on bro what are they coming up with this where you get this from you know what I think they do especially on Twitter when they create these they create these for engagement I think they create them for engagement to get people talking to get people going because I think you get paid for your impressions or something like that I think if I'm not mistaken you know I don't know I think so I think so.

29:06Because sometimes people, you know you get your check from Twitter now. Oh, okay. For your engagement and your impressions or something like that. I'm not sure how it worked. I think I need to sign up for that. I sure make me look. I thought you would have had it. As much as you been with it? Nah. Nah, I got to sign up for it. I don't like filling all that stuff out, Joe. It's too much work. Yeah, too much work. Too much work. I mean, you know, it could be nice little pocket change. You know, little gas money. Little McDonald's money. So you're on all social platforms. Oh, yeah. Instagrams. I got Twitter.

29:41And I got... How you got to listen if you ain't got James Harden on it? Yeah. Oh, I want to say that. Did you say D-Wade, Joe? You said D-Wade? Nah. Look, it's doing what it was supposed to do, which is get us, get people talking about it. Because they know if you ain't got Jordan, you ain't got James Harden. James Harden averaged 36, averaged 34. James Harden is about to hit 30 ,000 points.

30:17Pure scores? Yeah. James Harden's got to be there. There was a time, there was like a five-year period. People were actually questioning, is James Harden a better scorer than Michael Jordan? Is James Harden a better scorer than Kobe? and you ain't even got the man on the list? Yeah. Come on now. Hey, Unc, you heard what I told Joe Unc? I get it. I get it. I get it. But for James Harden not to be up there, man, stop. You heard what I told Unc, Joe? I mean, what I told Joe Unc? I say they create these lists like this. And there's another one. We're probably not going to talk about it. There's a football list.

30:55I'm not sure if you saw it today that talked about the best safeties they ever played this game. Did you see that one? What do they got up there? They got Ed Reed first. They got Ronnie Lott second. Okay. Troy third? Troy was number eight. Huh? Troy was number eight. Hey, Troy was number eight. They got Steve Atwater, and they got your boy Steve in there. Okay. I'm talking about real high. But I've looked at the list. I'm like, come on now. Brian Dawkins was up there too. I'm like, come on. What are we doing? And I think they create these lists for engagement because they get paid for the impressions on how many people...

31:32It's working because that's a bull job. Oh, yeah. It's working big time. Oh, yeah. Hold on. You ain't got Jerry West. You ain't got Elgin Baylor. You ain't got Wilt Chamberlain. So you ain't got... I'm just trying to figure out. So what was the criteria that you used to determine scores? They just wanted to put it out, man. They want us to talk about it. Ain't no way in hell. Because ain't no way in hell. You got a list with scores and James Harden ain't a top five score. Right. Right. absolutely right come on man come on man you average in the mid 30s you got to be way up there cause ain't a whole lot of look especially in the modern basketball you know way back then when they had like 8-12 teams but once you got anytime you average at least 35 since the merger and I think the merger is 76-77 come on now yeah It's ridiculous.

32:30Oh, Lord, have mercy. Oh, my goodness. That's what I'm saying. I'm saying, hey, I'm saying Melo a top 10 scorer in the NBA. Yeah. Melo wasn't knocked by the bucket. Is it? Tracy McGrady was a scorer. Oh, they ain't have him on there? Hell no. They had 62 points in the game. Oh, Lord, have mercy. Joe, what's the most you scored in a game, Joe? I think like 44, Ocho. I wasn't putting up no 50, 60. I was just consistent. I had a year-wide average about 25, 26. I was just consistent. You know what I mean? I was going to give you what I was going to give you. Yes, sir. Hey, I hope you find that consistency when you see me.

33:22You say you what, man? I hope you had that consistency when I see you man why that man why that man always want me to act out of character I'm trying to be cool with the man you know what I'm saying hey Joe I don't want to be cool with him I want to play ball we got the fade pinning you know what I'm saying oh it's not pinning it went through it went through Oh, it's going down, Joe. Hey, can you talk about this pinning? Oh, no. Hey, that transaction, it's going through. As far as scoring, we ain't going to put Allen Iverson on that. Oh, man. Oh, that's a good one. That's a good one. Man, come on.

34:09I'm getting mad.

34:14It's like my grandma used to say, the more I talk, the better I got. That man average. Because it's a bull job. Melo. No Melo. No Harden. No A-high. That man got a career average about 28. Yeah, come on, man. Hey, doesn't it get difficult, too, when you talk about some of the better scores of all time, when there's so many of them, how do you know who to put in your top 10? Luka averaging 28 points a game. Right now, Luka would have the third high-scoring average in NBA history behind Jordan and Will. And you got him down at eight.

34:58The mere fact that you don't got Harden, you don't have Iverson, you don't even have them on the list. Along with Trace McGrady. Because Iverson was hey, boy listen, them early 2000s, them late 90s yeah, I mean running the league. What?

35:22man come on now let me see the purest scores Jordan Colby, Harden Iverson, they just buckets what about D-Wade no? yeah D-Wade was a bucket, hold up he led the league in scoring one year he led the league in scoring one year but you look at KD Jordan Harden you talking about guys in the consistent high 20s 30s you knew what they were doing I mean Jordan came in as a rookie dropping 28 you ain't gonna see that itch no more you don't think so not no rookie coming to drop 28 again yeah Jordan have his 28 as a rookie you don't think hey Joe they gotta have that green light to be able to shoot that wheel I think I think at some point at some point I don't know if it's going to be this year, but I think at some point we're going to get somebody who's going to come along as a rookie, and I'm talking about he's going to be out there handing them out.

36:27You hear me? He's going to be handing them out. Think about it. Kevin Durant averaged a little bit 20. Jordan, LeBron averaged 20. Yeah, Mello averaged 20. I think 21. Yeah, come on. This man averaged 28 a game. He's a rookie. Hey. I think he lost the scoring title one year. He might have lost the scoring title. He might have lost it to Bird Dog, Bernard King, I think. At 30-something points. Your mindset got to be different, bro. Yeah, man. Man, everybody know Jordan was a walking bucket. The man averaged 37. Averaged 35, 32, 33. The man won seven straight scoring titles. Sit it down for a year and a half and come back and get three more.

37:18Oh, ridiculous. Oh, Mike, boy. You see Mike won again. You seen that? He did? Yeah. Really? He won another race. Out of the last six, he's his fourth one. He won four, yeah. Hey, all the other team owners say since they got that line, everybody got a charter now. He said, man, y 'all should have sued him early. He's going to take somebody with deep pockets that wasn't afraid. Man, you're not going to push them up. I don't really know how Mike operate, but he ain't going to let y 'all walk. You not been to walk over. Man, to be able to contest NASCAR, though, Uncle Ocho, that's big time. Not only that, after you won, you been kicking they butt?

38:05Oh, yeah. Man.

38:10Yeah, we ain't going to never get MJ back in basketball, the way he got them cars running around that track.

38:20Oh, yeah. And he really don't show up to NC either. He don't. The last thing I've seen, Mike go more to NC Carolina games than he go to the NBA games. The last thing I saw Mike show up for, the 75th anniversary. Yeah. You seen him as a show? No. I think he do be having stuff, but I think it'd be so private, invite only. He ain't. He normally put on something at the Ocho game. He should do that every year. That was the best part at Ocho. Everybody was trying to get him out. You went to that one we had in LA back in 2019, 2018, 2019? 20. It was in Bel Air. You had to park, you catch a bus. I don't know.

39:14I don't know if I was at him. Nah, I don't think I'm... You went up. That thing was like that. That thing was like that. Yeah, Joe, that thing was nice, Joe. And he was in the back. He up in the cut. He ain't busy with his thing, but he way back off. You got to go up and around and down the body.

39:39But, nah, man. There was a guy, and I don't know if you guys remember, there was a guy named Andrew Yeah, I do. Play with the Philadelphia 76ers. They call him the Boston Strangler. A straight bucket. Get to it. The Boston Strangler. That's what they call him because he gave the Celtics hell. So that's what they dubbed him the Boston Strangler. World beat free. Yeah. He changed his name to World. His name was Lloyd. He changed his name to World because he could do it anywhere. He said, I can make it anywhere in the world. man I just think I said man man ain't nobody I don't think anybody that uh because I saw a little bit of this and I looked and so you know I go to the comments I don't think there was like one positive comment I don't think there was like one comment that said man y 'all got boy y 'all

40:38they did it on personal engagement because if they did it the right way it wouldn't be nothing to talk about but look i understand i look and i think the thing sometimes don't show you you kind of want to get engagements and the more outlandish or ridiculous something is the more yeah that you get yes damn you can't make it so egregious just just for the sake of argument just put if you put make sure you got kobe higher you got james hard you got iverson you got a couple of guys on there now you might want to play with the rankings but at least you got to put them on oh lord have mercy whoever doing it probably ain't never even played the sport bro well I mean look at that they just threw some names out there

41:32this one comes from Xavier let's take a listen to what Xavier had to say I have two questions for you and Joe I have one question for you first question Unc When you worked with Skip in L.A., how did you stay disciplined with the breakfast you would post every morning, you know, to keep your body in tip top shape? And the second question is, how much different is it working with Skip versus your old colleagues like Stephen A. Smith and other people over at ESPN that you worked with? and Joe my question I have for you is the night you made Paul Pierce touch earth going forward how did the opposing team and players like how did they how did they defend you and like what did they draw up to defend you after you made Paul Pierce like after you embarrassed well go ahead Joe I'll let you start for me it wasn't that you know teams did anything different obviously it was a great dribble move and obviously I finished the shot.

42:31But, I mean, yeah, was everybody talking about it? Yeah, but I don't think people were – I don't think teams were just coming in looking to defend me differently. You know, I probably had about 21 points that game. It wasn't like I had 55 and I made them fall. You feel what I'm saying? But nonetheless, it felt great. It felt great. Yeah. Well, the first question is, you know, how do you stay disciplined? It's very easy because I had been eating egg whites and oatmeal since 93. And I ate egg whites and oatmeal until the pandemic happened. So that just goes to show. I had eaten that for like 27 years.

43:12Straight egg whites and oatmeal every morning for breakfast. For 27 straight years. Yep. From 1993 until late February of 2020 when the pandemic happened. so it was nothing for me and plus cause I was like you know cause we had to be there before the pandemic happened Joe we had to be there we had production meetings at 430 in the morning? yes woo so it got hard so it was easy when LeBron was on East Coast because they playing 430 ball games I'm out this man come to LA they playing 730 so So now I'm up 10, and I got to get right back up at 4, shower, get to the place. I only live two miles from the place, so it only took me about if I caught the lights just right, I could get to work in three minutes.

44:06And so it was easy for me to stay disciplined. I could eat the same thing. If somebody said, okay, Shannon, you can only eat this for the rest, it's easy. I could eat turkey, rice, broccoli. I could eat egg whites, toast, oatmeal. I could eat that every day for the rest of my life. debating with Skip versus debating Stephen A. When I debated Skip on Undisputed, it was a real debate show. It's me versus him. Sometimes he's the defense, I'm the prosecution. Sometimes he's the prosecution, I mean, I'm the defense, he's the prosecution. And I'm literally trying to win. I'm building my case to beat him.

44:49And if I can't beat him, I'm going to punch holes in his argument and then have his ball flat. Stephen A is more conversational. It's not I'm trying to beat Stephen A. I'm not trying to beat them guys. Well, I throw a fact, and it's like, okay, boom. But it was totally different because at first take, it really wasn't the debate. It was more of a conversation. Ocho, what do you think about this? Joe, what do you think about this? Shannon, what do you think about this? Stephen A, I mean, with Skip, I'm planting my flag right here and I'm not moving off this and now you build your case, you build your argument to support what you're saying so, and that's what you learn is that you never bring something into the argument that doesn't help your case if you bring it in it better help your case because if it doesn't, all you've done to strengthen his argument.

45:52And you don't want to strengthen his argument. My strongest point, I lead out with it. My next strongest, I let I go with that. Then I'm going to flip it over to him. But the thing is that you got to do when you're in a real, real debate format, is that you got to keep your train of thought all the while while he says. So now I'm like, okay. I'm writing it down. I'm listening. Now, Before I get to my point, I'm going to say, now, this is what you said. You said this right here. You said LeBron didn't play that well. Now, mind you, you do realize they scored 30 points in the fourth quarter, right?

46:32You do, LeBron, realize LeBron scored 16 points and he assisted on another six. So that's 22 of the 30 points LeBron had a key hand in. But you say LeBron didn't play well? I would say that's pretty good. If somebody gets 22 or 30. So if anybody, if another player, team scores 30 points, and another player has a hand in 22 of those 30, did he play well? So that's how you have to build your argument. But it's just different with first take. You know me. I had a bunch of shenanigans. I'm coming with a goat mask. I got a crown on. I got a cloak on. I got a scepter. Ocho, I'm the only guy. When did you ever see a guy?

47:15I got Hennessy. I got weed. I got gummies. I got a hot plate. I got all that up there. They let me do it. I was like, okay, let's see how far we can push the envelope. So it's just different. Obviously, they wasn't going to let me bring no cognac, no gummies, no weed. I had actual weed. Yeah. I had actually gummies with THC in them on the desk. I'm drinking. At 6.30 in the morning.

47:53I got pancakes. I got sausage. I got eggs. I got a sign that said Club Shea Shea featuring Goat James.

48:04So I, and when I did this, I had no idea that it was going to take off because you don't know. I'm just having a good time. the Broncos beat the Cowboys I want to celebrate ain't no cigar, ain't anything open but convenience store at 3.30 at 4 o 'clock in the morning man you know what so I get some blackened moth I get some swishy sweets I grab a bottle of liquor and next thing you know I got my yeah yeah yeah

48:39it's gone and from that day on I've been on ever since I don't give it since Aaron Wilson what do you think about Darryl Green trying to make the Olympic flag team I'm rooting for him oh DG I came in at 90 DG came in at 83 so DG like 65 he gotta be 65 he trying to make the what team flag team flag team for the Olympics at 28 so that's that's two years away so he'll be 67-68. I'm on the flag football team? Yeah. I seen Tom out there throwing that thing, boy. Man, they got their head whooped, Joe. Hey, you see the boy that Molly walked. Hey, remember when we talked about that on the show? Yes. What did I say would happen?

49:30It doesn't matter. They can't play. Yeah, they can score but they can't stop the other team from scoring. Nah, yeah. You talking about how they dipping low and all that in there. Yeah. They picked them off twice. they got two pick sixes. Yeah, and just the game in general, I mean, Joe, the nuances of flag football is completely different. It's completely different and we would lose every time. Me and Uncle had a conversation about this. Maybe it was last year, maybe the year before last year. I said, man, them boys will whoop us. We can get our best players in the NFL and play them in flag football and they will destroy us every time.

50:05And that was a small example of it. The Spurs in their six-year playoff draft behind Wemby's game winner. Wimby buried a 17-foot fadeaway over Iguodaro with 1.1 second to give San Antonio a 101 to 100 win over the Suns. The sharp mark, the Wimby's first go-ahead make in the final five seconds of the fourth quarter overtime in his career after missing the previous five attempts.

50:38Hey.

50:42Wimby. Two hot teams, too. Wimby had 34. He was perfect for the free throw line, 34 and 12. D. Fox had 23. Vassell has 12. Champagne had 14. Castle was out tonight. Yeah. But they deep, though. They don't even matter, Ocho. That Castle didn't play. They deep. It's two hot teams right now. Phoenix have been playing great basketball. Spurs has been playing great. but Wimby like a cheat code out there, man. What you supposed to do with all that? Nothing. Nothing. Hope he missed. Because you ain't bothering that shot. You just got to tame them guys around them in order to beat them. You got to play five on four, huh?

51:27Yeah, I'm saying, like, you got to kind of figure, you know, Wimby going to get his, but we can't let these other dudes, Fox and Castle and all them, go for 25, 27, 30 points, because now we ain't got a chance. Yeah. No. But the Spurs are headed to the playoffs. I mean, they get number one overall draft pick, David Robinson, number one overall draft pick, Tim Duncan, number one overall draft pick, Wimby. They keep them a nice big over there on the map. Every, damn near every 12 years, they got another B. not just any old big a whole game changing big Andre Iguodala says winning isn't a priority right now for players in the NBA you got one third of the league tanking you got guys who will never contribute to winning but have big numbers and then get paid all agents do is say what your numbers are then match them to whoever gets paid the highest in that category so it's like I can average 24 but because it's not hard as it used to be so now it's like why play the right way to win when you can make more money getting buckets?

52:39Joe, any truth to that? That's a little truth in it. I think, you know, guys are so caught up in their own brands now, Uncle Ocho, that, you know, they want their own brands to be successful just as much as, you know, whatever it is they're doing on the court. You know what I mean? They want all that to be successful off the court. So you see a lot of guys who kind of, you know, kind of in their own lane trying to do their own thing. So I think it's some truth to what Iguodala is saying. You know, it is a, I don't want to say it's easier to score, you know, in this era, but without the paint being so clogged up and the floor being so spaced and open, there's more opportunities.

53:17You know what I mean? There's more opportunities. And yeah, he is right. These agents do compare. It's just like in any other sport. In football. If you franchise a dude, we going with the what? Top five average salaries. you know what I mean so like if you if Average 25 we gonna look and see who Average 25 and what he make yeah that's how it's how it's been what they gonna look at Ocho the Rams Puka look at that look at what Chase got yeah look at my neighbor numbers to Chase JSN look at my numbers to Chase I don't know I don't know what y 'all want me to tell you that's the way it works yeah but I get it because the thing is that, I mean, look, it's so much money.

54:04$300 million. I mean, look at the contract. $300 million. Tatum and Brown got$300 million contracts. They're about to be a$400 million guy. Oh, yeah. In the next 10 years, they're going to be a guy making half a bill. Yeah, because the way the TV deals are and the money, the endorsements. Yes. Oh, no question. My goodness. I hope it be my daughter.

54:32Hey, you better get there and get a son, Joe. Get it right. I got a little foyo over here. He look like he's six. My little youngest son, Jet. Yeah, he's four. He look like he's six over here. So he's shooting the rock? Yeah, he do a little bit of everything, man. I keep him right. I got him playing soccer, get his footwork right. You know what I'm talking about, Ocho? Yeah. Huh? Don't let him play no football, Joe. Nah, I ain't going to let him play no football. We might play a little flag or something, you know. Don't let it play football. It's different, you gotta really love it, Ocho, like we did, cause you know playing, bro, we had to get that paint.

55:13We want a damn flag, I buy playing flag. I'm trying to play off water. I'm trying to put the helmets and pads on. Yeah. Hey, hey, hey, hey, as a little kid, you know, it's funny to me to see them kids out there six, seven years old, man, hitting each other like that. Yeah. Hey, Ocho remember we had them snap on hip pants, butt pants? Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. I'll never forget, 1988, boy. Yeah, man, please. We tried, we tried, hey, boy, we, hey, and all that time, we done been, we done been playing without pants for years. We tackling in the front yard, we tackling on pavement. Right, right.

55:49Throw up, throw up tackle. And we got some back, boy, please. Playing throw up tackle, yeah, I remember that. Boy, y 'all gonna get hurt, oh well. Right, right. Touch that football. Bust them up. Tackle the man with the ball. Right, right. Good days there, boy.

56:37I'm Daniel Alarcon, and this is my friend who's much more famous than I am. I wouldn't go that far, but I'm John Green, co-host of the podcast The Away End with my old friend Daniel. On our podcast The Away End, we'll share with you the magic of international football, all leading up to the 2026 World Cup. Together, we'll find out why, of all the unimportant things, football, soccer is the most important. Listen to The Away End with Daniel Alarcon and John Green on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. I'm Miles Turner. And I'm Brianna Stewart. And our podcast, Game Recognized Game, has never been done before.

57:15Two active players giving you a real look at our lives and what we actually think on and off the court. Nothing's off limits. We talk tanking. I might get in trouble for this answer, but I think it's like definitely happening in the WBA. We talk about our mistakes, too. They pulled me to the side and was like, hey, man, we got a call last night. You can't be rolling around the city like this the night before games. Check out Game Recognized Game with Stewie and Miles on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Hey, I'm Wilmer Valderrama. And this is Freddy Rodriguez.

57:47And we're back. Dos Amigos season two, baby. Last time, we went deep on our careers, our lives, our art, and everything in between. Our big breaks, our auditions, the near misses, the epiphanies, the moments that change our lives forever. This season, we're deepening our relationships, creating collaborations, and... The door always stays open for a third amigo to pull up a chair. Listen to Dos Amigos on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. I'm Daniel Jeremiah. And I am Greg Rosenthal. I know that, Greg. We're teaming up on 40s and free agents, the podcast that owns the NFL offseason.

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