The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz
Alley Oop 5: Malone Gets Fired, New Nickname for the Joker, and Will the Warriors Take It All? (feat. Zach Harper)
Thu, 10 Apr 2025
Juju Gotti and The Athletic’s Zach Harper talk the best basketball movies of all time, that Michael Malone firing, and if the Warriors go all the way. Plus, a deep download on those NCAA games and first round draft picks. Alley Oop is all things hoops and hoopers. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Chapter 1: What are Juju Gotti's thoughts on basketball hairstyles?
What you think about his curl? What you think about the little afro curl he got going on? I think he the first white jerry curl. If he's white. I'm not sure. Don't sue me, y'all.
I think he is, but I get it. Well, now this is territory I'm uncomfortable with. I don't know, but I don't know. Mute it.
Miss Becky bleeping.
You gave me so much motivation and encouragement by... You know what I mean? By dealing with me, bro, that I never necessarily had in myself, bro. You gave me the confidence to want to do this in the first place, dog. And I'll always be grateful for you, bro.
I told you this privately. I will tell you this publicly. You are a star. You should be in front of the camera. You should be on the mic. You shouldn't be behind the scenes. Like, yeah, all the social media stuff you're great at, but you're a star, man. You should be in front of everything.
Look, you're going to make my mama cry. I know. I know. Give us a second. We got to start. It was a wonderful game last night. We taping this on a Tuesday afternoon after the national championship. But we just got earth shattering news from the NBA. Mike Malone and company out in Denver. What is going on there, brother?
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Chapter 2: Why was Michael Malone fired from the Denver Nuggets?
Well, I think someone reminded Stan Kroenke he owns the Denver Nuggets. And he just thought, oh, I don't. This doesn't seem good enough. I don't know, man. Like, it's look. Mike Brown gets fired in December. Yeah. Coach's fire ends happen in December. Taylor Jenkins gets fired nine games before the playoffs. We're like, Ooh, that's a little too close to the playoffs. That doesn't happen.
And then Denver's like, hold on. What about three games before the playoffs? What if we did? And it's not like they're a fringe team or anything. They could be the three seed. They're in the mix. They're a half game ahead of this whole traffic jam in the West. I think they just decided, all right, this isn't our guy moving forward.
Let's see what David Adelman has because he's kind of the next hot assistant coach on the market. He will be this summer. I don't know, man. They just don't have any basketball people running the organization. That's what happens.
Bro, like you said, Taylor Jenkins, wow, that was a little much. But this is a spicy meet the ball.
It is, man.
Right before the playoffs. Do you think the Joker or anybody on the team may have had a hand in this or may have just said, hey, bro, I don't like how he called me Brucey B last year.
Like, what could it be, man? Juju, I think you can help me on this quest, okay? On Jokic's basketball – reference page. This isn't anything new. It's been there for a while. But I'm trying to get us away from calling him the Joker because the other nickname on his page is Big Honey. And I just think Big Honey is a way better nickname.
I know Joker's easier and everything and Joker all that, but Big Honey is a great... That's an ABA nickname. That's a great nickname. I don't know that Big Honey had anything to do with this, but I wouldn't rule it out. I think with... With this, like, I think you have to make this move this point in the season. I think you have to run it by him. Right.
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Chapter 3: What nickname should we give Nikola Jokic?
But I don't know that he decides this, right? I think you have to give him a heads up, though.
Yeah. Yeah, you're right. I think Big Honey might have crossed his desk, and then he was like, I don't give a damn. These ain't my horses.
Yeah, you're not firing my horses. I don't care.
We're going to move on to the game heard around the world last night. Houston versus Florida, man. Houston had them clowns. clamps on Walter Clayton last night. They had the clamps on the whole team pretty much, except Will Richard, the first half, which was a hero. I think he might should have got the MVP of the game last night. How do you feel about that game last night, bro?
I like Kelvin Sampson. Kelvin Sampson is just one of those good dudes that you want to win a championship. You want him to get that validation. He's one of those basketball lifers, right? He's just one of those guys that I think has earned it. And for them to go out that way, and you could, like, the comments after, like, to not get a shot, you could live with missing a shot, right?
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Chapter 4: How did Houston perform against Florida in the NCAA?
But it was, you know, Clayton, to his credit, like, he had a miserable offensive game. Passed the ball really well, a couple turnovers, but he passed well, he defended well. And then he's the one that made the closeout on that shot that caused him to almost travel, right? Like, he's got to, he jumps, has to drop the ball. If I'm sharp there, it's easy to, you know, second guess it.
The refs were so bad, and they're college refs, so they're always bad. I don't think they were one-sided, but the refs are so bad. I hold that rock until he gets to me. I would throw my body into him, toss up some garbage, and make them call that foul, or they're the enemies forever, right? You've got to throw some contact in there.
You know, he at least didn't touch the ball and get the turnover. He tried to shield it to where they could get it. Yeah, I mean, it was such a fun game. And both those teams, with the way their tournaments went, it was always going to come down to, like, a chaotic final possession. But, man, I just feel so horrible for Houston. They didn't get a shot.
Right. I feel so bad for Sharp as well, bro. If you out there, you love Sharp, bro, send my boy a text message today, man, because the last two possessions, off his knee out of bounds, couldn't get a shot up. Oh, man, I know that's going to stick with him for the rest of his life, bro.
That's true, yeah.
Because I'm not sure how much of a prospect he is for the NBA or whatever. So, man, it's got to be rough. Let's travel to the women's side of the tournament. Geno and them girls, they made it real boring for us to watch. Sure. They spanked that baby all game long. What do you think about Paige Beckers and them girls getting it done? Sarah Strong, I see you.
Yeah. Oh, my God. Like, all right. I'm not going to be too reactionary because it's still – assuming they come out at the same time, it's still Juju Watkins, right? Like, she's still the number one pick. But – The absolute number two pick, assuming she goes out in two years, is Sarah Strong, right?
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Chapter 5: What happened in the women's NCAA tournament with Geno's team?
For sure.
Like, no one else. I mean, she's already this good as a freshman? setting records for blocks and steals. She went, what, like 25, 15, and 5, and 3, and 2, or something like that. I mean, she's putting up crazy numbers. That's a lottery ticket. That's not even a stat line. Just crazy numbers there. It was deflating because I thought it was going to be a great game.
I thought South Carolina was going to come out and just be South Carolina. For me, it was great because, you know, Paige finally gets her title, right? She went there, what, in 2020? And now she'll be the number one pick on Monday and get to further her journey in the WNBA. But, yeah, I would have liked a better game. At what point did you give up in terms of, like, no?
There was a point where – and it was probably, like – it probably was greater than what I remember the score being, but I think it was like an 18, 20 point game in the third. And Don Staley was like something have, they gave up like a corner three, like a left corner three. Yeah. And she like, she left, let out an F bomb.
Right.
She was just like, she was like almost throwing a tantrum. Like she was so frustrated. And I was like, Oh no, like this is really over. We have so much time left. I was like, at that point I was like, I'm probably going to come back for the ceremony. Like, I don't know that I'm going to check back in here with the rest of this game.
Like, I don't know that I can keep just watching this ass whooping.
Miss Rebecca, cue some of those callers up for us right now, sis.
You know, Juju, it's Mason here in North Carolina, way out west of North Carolina, near the Indian Reservation Cherokee. I've been watching a lot of NBA. I think the Warriors are going to do it, man. I think the Warriors have what it takes. I think Jimmy is the secret sauce, if you may. I see the Warriors winning it all. However... Man, I want OKC to win it. Let me know your thoughts.
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