Kevin McHale On The Jokic To Larry Bird & Himself Comparison | June 7, 2023

Kevin, it's Frank Isolo, Brian Scalabrini. What's up? I'm not in Europe. I'm in northern Minnesota. I was driving into places in the Gulf. I heard you guys talking about something I thought was interesting and thought I'd call in. You know, you're right. Like, when you're a young player and you're playing with older players, you don't have the best shot. You don't have the best skill level. And those older guys look at you and go, move the ball. You know, cut. They make you do all the little things. And when you play with your age group, you go back and all of a sudden, if you're the best 13-year-old, you're jacking up every shot. You don't learn how to pass and cut and move. But you're a 13-year-old playing with 15, 16-year-olds, believe me, you're passing, cutting, screening. Yeah, that's a good point. When you grew up, did you have to play against a lot of guys, like, five years older than you? Yeah. I remember just playing at the park. We rarely played against our own age. We played against grown men getting off of work and stuff like that. Absolutely. That was the biggest thing. You'd go over there and they would jump your ass if you didn't cut. They'd look at you and go, what are you doing? You're like, well, I'm standing here. And they'd go, oh yeah, don't do that. And you know, so they made you play a certain way. And I think, so bringing it full circle, that's the way those European guys are. I had the most interesting conversation with Louis Scola when I was coaching them. I said, Scola, you know, tell me about your life. And he started telling me about being a 15- and 16-year-old kid, and he never left Argentina and South America to go to Europe. I was thinking, at 16, I can't hardly get to school. And I'm in a small town. And he went there and played, and he said, they jumped my rear end. He said, they got on me, and they pushed me, and everybody said, you're not going to make it. And he said, I just rounded out at the lowest level over in Europe. But I was still at 16. He was playing with 28-year-olds. And I'm telling you, those guys have a different mentality. And we need more of that in America. We need the guys to just, you know, learn how to play. Well, Scola, you know this as well as I do. I watch the Celtics sometimes, and I'm just yelling, somebody cut. Can you please clear the elbow? Can somebody just not see that there's no room for Brown or Tatum? He got to the coaching club. Yeah, your reception's not great there. Kevin, let me ask you this really quickly. What did you make of Jokic in game two? A lot of people, oh, he only had four assists. They turned him into a passer. You know, the guy's been basically averaging a triple-double all throughout the playoffs. What did you think of Jokic's performance in the game two loss? Now, remember, they were up eight going into the fourth quarter. Then it all fell apart for Denver. Yeah, you know what? I thought he moved his offense, and he does important things. I mean, he plays at his own pace. He does what he wants to do on the floor. He threw a lot of passes out. They just didn't get a lot of shots off it. They didn't make a lot of shots off it. But, you know, he takes important shots. You know, but I think some guys, you know, Porter Jr., some of those guys were not shooting well. He's good enough to say, hey, look it. I can take this game on myself. The thing I love about him is when they need a basket, I just look back to when they played the Lakers in game four. He gets the ball on the left wing. He could have easily shot a 17-footer. You know, and I tell you what, 90% of the guys in the league would have done that. He puts the ball on the floor, takes a good body bump from Davis, who can really move his feet, takes another dribble, body bumps him again, takes that long, narrow step, gets rid of him, and shoots a two-foot floater. That won the game for them. He doesn't settle for just shooting threes and stuff. And if you come to him, he will pass it. So, you know, I just think he plays the game the right way. You know, I laugh. He plays like Larry Bird. Well, no, he doesn't. But he plays like a big guy with great, great, great vision. You know, like the Bill Walton type vision. Yeah, Mike Breen said he's a combination of you and Larry. Like, you at the scoring, the inside play, with all the step-throughs, and Larry with the passing and the shooting. You know, yeah, you know, I'll tell you what, Larry plays from your standard triple threat position in front of you. Jokic plays like a big guy with the ball atop his head. Look how many times that he plays with the ball. You know, he plays the ball upright. He plays different than Larry, but has great vision. Great vision, like Larry did. But, no, Jokic, you know, he's going to put up a huge number. He plays the right way. And I think, yeah, you know, everybody says, you know, Miami Forest has been playing a single, had to score and stuff. I don't believe that. I just think he's still going to... If guys are cutting and moving, they got funky in that fourth quarter. And I think Mike Malone was right. He said, hey, look, if you think we played great in game one, you're crazy. They missed a lot of shots. And Miami. And so, yeah, you know what, I find it really hard to criticize Jokic too much just because he just plays the game. And he makes so many nice, good reads, and he just makes so many nice plays. And the thing I like about him is he doesn't bail out. If you need a hoop, he's going to take his big butt, put it in the post, and just hit you with his shoulder every single dribble. Every dribble, he's hitting you. And then he's just going to spin off you. And he's got great touch around the rim. So, you know, I mean, hey, but I will say one thing. I thought Miami wasn't going to beat Milwaukee. I thought Miami wasn't going to beat Boston. Day to day, I'm done. I'd go broke if I bet on those guys. I mean, honest to God, they are the worst team for fan duel. Because they're like, yeah, everybody's losing their house. They're amazing, man. They just kind of battled, and they made shots. They're a fun team for me to watch. I just think that, I thought it was Bostra putting in love I thought was big just to start off the game. Kevin got rebounding. He had some steals. He just knows how to play. Kevin threw that ultimate pass to Bam, and they get a clear pass. Two shots in the ball. And did you see Bam yelling, no, don't throw it? There's no room, and Kevin throws just a seed to him. Miami's just an interesting, interesting team. They just battle. I love this thing. It's their culture. They've got a bunch of guys that like to play hard. I mean, I played on a team. We never let them go to the ropes. Why would you? I mean, we won games down 8 with 3 minutes to go, and they just keep fighting. They've got a team that just fights. They're fun. They're fun to watch, but anyways, I thought it was interesting to hear you guys talk about Europe. The AAU program, I know, Scali, you're a big coach in the AAU system. I think that's led to just a bunch of guys that don't know how to play without the ball. I agree with you. Honestly, basketball is a five-man game, which is beautiful. Let me ask you, have you ever coached against a team that, like, I know back in the day you guys had a lot of discipline, because it's just the way it was, but in your coaching career, have you ever coached a team with this much discipline, like Miami? It's almost tough for guys to stay locked in for 24 seconds when you're going against them. Yeah, you know, what Miami does, they'll come in, they have their shooters set back screens, then he flares off it, or back screen comes off, dribble handoff. They just read and react off the defense. They do have sets, and I think what makes them really tough is that, let's say you're Duncan Robinson, and all of a sudden your guy, you set a back screen, and your guy, you know, really overhelps on the back screen. He comes sprinting off that screen ready to shoot it, but if his man stays with him, he'll come off that screen now and turn the corner. So it's a read and react offense. They make the defense look bad, because if you're chasing hard, they're going to put the ball on the floor and keep going. If you're off, they're going to shoot it. They just read and react. Kevin, before we let you go here, a foursome. It's you, Michael Jordan, Charles Barkley, and Danny Ainge. Who would be the best golfer, and who would be the guy in that foursome that would face the most verbal abuse? Oh, God. Let me see. The verbal abuse would be terrible. Danny used to be the best. Did you call him? Danny used to be the best golfer of all, but I think everybody, man, Mike and I and Danny and Chuck, we're all getting older. And that body doesn't move as much. All those things I did to myself when I was young, really at 65, really don't work well on the golf court anymore. It would be a ton of fun. I know one thing. Ainge, Barkley, and Mike would be gambling at a level that would scare me. I would just run over and hide somewhere. Those guys, man, I tell you what, they put like $10,000 on whether the sun comes up. I'm like, they're crazy. I'm like, I'm out, boys. I'll play you for $10 or a beer, but that's about it. Verbal abuse would be fun. Actually, I played with Mike and Danny and myself. Never had Chuck in the mix, but that would be a lot of fun. That's tremendous. Kevin, we've got to get up to Minnesota to hang out with you. We'll do the show up there. Come sit in with us, all right? You guys got it, man. I just want to talk to you on a good subject, guys. Have fun. Thanks a lot. That, of course, is the great Kevin McHale.