Celtics Most Consequential Win Of Year? + Adam Silver Takes a Major Stand

Brian Windhorst is joined by ESPN’s Vince Goodwill and Anthony Slater to discuss the Celtics big win over the Thunder in Boston including a huge game from Jaylen Brown and why this was one of the more consequential games of the season. Then, we break down if the MVP race is actually heating up before talking about some historic MVP votes that we disagree with. Plus, we tackle how far NBA commissioner Adam Silver will go on tanking after his stern comments at the board of governors meeting. Finally, how concerning are the tough times for the Warriors for next season?

0:00 Intro
1:54 Celtics and Brown down OKC
12:13 NBA discourse around SGA & Wemby heats up
27:21 Recapping legendary MVP votes
44:32 How far will the NBA go to stop tanking?
57:11 Tough times developing for the Warriors

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32 comments

  1. All these coaches and all these fans who watch the games see how ridiculous the fouling and foul beating is with OKC… and continuously you have sports writers and journalist gaslighting fans pretending it’s not a real thing.
    26:40

  3. Just to clarify cause people don't know this. Wemby didn't bring up the MVP talk at all. The entire thing happened because a Spurs reporter for the Atlantic was talking to Keldon after the game about the 6MOTY award and then Wemby was around when they started talking about the MVP award, which led to Wemby tell that reporter why he thinks he should win, and then that reporter making it public by directly asking Wemby if he wants to state his case for MVP and then said "tell us your three big bullet points". That's the story. Wemby didn't find a reason to tell his side, he was asked because anyone with eyes knows that Wemby is the MVP because his value on the court literally breaks basketball and SGA is just doing what he's been doing for 3 years now

  5. Reminder to everyone that the DPOY award was created because defensive players were getting ignored for the MVP. But instead of changing MVP to just offensive players they pretended in the media to care about defense in another way. No a guy is the best player because of his defense and they still don't want to give him MVP

  7. Celtics won majorly because of Tatum, not ball hogging Brown. @Vince.

    BLM has ruined merit in the US. Pathetic af.

  9. Here's a list of who should've won MVP vs who actually did with in order from most to least egregious:

    Tier 1
    1. 2001: Allen Iverson over Shaquille O'Neal

    Tier 2
    2. 2011: Derrick Rose over LeBron James
    3. 1979: Moses Malone over Kareem Abdul-Jabbar
    4. 2017: Russell Westbrook over LeBron James
    5. 1973: Dave Cowens over Kareem Abdul-Jabbar
    6. 1993: Charles Barkley over Michael Jordan

    Tier 3
    7. 1990: Magic Johnson over Michael Jordan
    8. 1969: Wes Unseld over Jerry West
    9. 1989: Magic Johnson over Michael Jordan
    10. 1975: Bob McAdoo over Kareem Abdul-Jabbar
    11. 2014: Kevin Durant over LeBron James
    12. 1959: Bob Pettit over Bill Russell
    13. 1997: Karl Malone over Michael Jordan

    Tier 4
    14. 1981: Julius Erving over Larry Bird
    15. 1999: Karl Malone over Shaquille O'Neal
    16. 2018: James Harden over Stephen Curry

    Tier 5
    17. 2023: Joel Embiid over Nikola Jokic
    18. 1964: Oscar Robertson over Wilt Chamberlain
    19. 1970: Willis Reed over Kareem Abdul-Jabbar
    20. 1995: David Robinson over Hakeem Olajuwon
    21. 1957: Bob Cousy over Bill Russell
    22. 1982: Moses Malone over Larry Bird
    23. 2007: Dirk Nowitzki over Kobe Bryant

    There are other MVP awards I might quibble with, but they are just quibbles. It seems LeBron James, Michael Jordan, and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar all lost MVPs because of voter fatigue. Jordan and LeBron also seem to have been penalized for not winning championships early on in their careers when they were already the best players in the league. I think Shaq was heavily penalized because of his physical advantages – no one thought AI was better than Shaq, but they thought what he did with his size was more impressive (even if far less impactful).

  10. My eye test on VW is can he play 36-38 minutes and 70 games 2 years in a row. Not talking about his ability. Let’s see availability. That’s how JE was judged. That’s how NJ is judged at that position.
    Wemby has a limited body of work.

  11. Jayson Tatum will be fine. You guys act like he's been away from basketball for ages. He had one of the swiftest, if not most radical Achilles injury recovery. He wasn't rushed back either (think Grant Hill's injury). Boston Celtics also played tremendously well without him. JT does not have the pressure he had in years prior. This allows other players to improve and develop to their next level.

  12. I think its disrespectful to keep saying Jokic is a bad defensive player. Career avg Jokic 11.1 rebounds 0.7 blocks 1.3 stl Gobert 11.7 rebounds 2.0 blocks 0.7 stl. Jokic has double the steals of Gobert and same rebounds.

  20. Steve Nash was not worthy of back to back MVP’s you guys got that wrong. All of y’all are Kobe haters and still are. Nash never even made it to the finals not even once! Then joined Kobe cause he couldn’t get it done. Get out of here with that brother man.

  21. OKC fan here. Don't care as much about MVP, though I do think SGA deserves it. What matters is the playoffs. Need to spend the next couple weeks getting healthy and conditioned.

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