点击查看原文：Blue skies ahead for San Antonio?
Blue skies ahead for San Antonio?
Columnist Mike Finger and Spurs beat reporters Jeff McDonald and Tom Orsborn discuss the Spurs’ improvement in close games – even ones they lose – thanks to Chris Paul and the evolving outside-inside game of Victor Wembanyama.
Suggested reading:
With Wembanyama out, Spurs’ Bassey shows off defensive skills
With Mitch Johnson running first practice, it’s business as usual for Spurs
Thunder’s small-ball lineup could present challenges for Wembanyama, Spurs
Victor Wembanyama shows he’s still coming for LeBron James
Here is the transcript of the podcast:
Mike Finger: From a highly secure network of top-secret locations across South Texas, this is the Spurs Insider. I’m your host, as always, Mike Finger, joined by our panel of Express-News Spurs beat writers, Jeff McDonald and Tom Orsborn, along with sports editor Nick Talbot. If I sound a bit frazzled, if this podcast isn’t its usual award-winning, just entertaining, overwhelmingly worthwhile self this week, it’s my fault. I’m going to take responsibility. We’re a bit behind schedule this morning. We can’t always be perfect, much like your local cagers. You can get off to a great, encouraging start to a season and then have it all fall apart. So, I just want to open this podcast by saying sorry, guys. It’s on me.
Jeff McDonald: That was a very accountable, very accountable intro.
Tom Orsborn: That was a great intro. It’s like you just hit the ground running.
Mike Finger: It was like, I don’t know.
Tom Orsborn: Yeah. Well, it was like watching Mickey Mantle hit three home runs hungover.
Mike Finger: Yeah, something like that. Like, that’s not too far off base. Might not get three home runs today, but the San Antonio Spurs, who are the subject of this podcast most weeks—at least they are, sometimes they’re not—we didn’t have an official prediction. We ended last week’s episode. Could have gone a number of ways, but I think this is yet another week of the 2024-2025 season. Seems like every week we’ve done this, we’ve sort of known what was coming. I think this sort of qualifies again. The Spurs last week took care of the Washington Wizards, that seems like ages ago. And then suffered back-to-back losses to the Los Angeles Lakers, that one in the NBA Cup at the AT&T Center—at the Frost Bank Center, sorry—hard-fought loss. They’re entertaining game in the Emirates NBA Cup, and then a game where basically nobody played, was a punt game at the Mavericks. We’re recording this, as always, on Tuesday, hitting your digital players on Wednesday. So this is one of those occasions where we will not talk about a game that has happened in the past. Who knows what happened last night against the Thunder? It might have been an all-timer. But those first three, Tom Orsborn, kind of what you expected, what stood out from that group?
Tom Orsborn: Yeah, I mean it wasn’t wasn’t much of a surprise. Losing Wembanyama to the bruised knee in the Lakers game, that was that was disappointing. Out again against Oklahoma City. But yeah, that like you said, Mike, that Lakers game was a lot of fun. Yeah, just a really hard-fought game and made me look forward to the November 27th game against the Lakers coming up. Thanksgiving Eve, where everybody will be there with bells on.
Mike Finger: The Lakers game, I think is one that we’re going to lead with talking about in detail this week because it was the most interesting, even though it was a Spurs loss. You can go back to the first game last year when the first ever meeting of these two generational superstars, LeBron James and the most hyped rookie since LeBron James, Victor Wembanyama, when they met at the Frost last year. That was a game that the Spurs actually won. But in talking to Victor after this one, he pointed out that, you know, so much has changed in the year since and that now the Spurs almost feel more in control of things, and even though the Spurs lost this one, I think there’s just a much different—this isn’t exactly breaking news, Jeff, but—there’s just a much different vibe around this team, and there’s much more of a sense of possibility as to what can happen this year. And I don’t think that a lost to the Lakers, a hard-fought loss, down-to-the-wire loss changes that much, do you?
Jeff McDonald: No, no, and I I think um a lot of that is the Chris Paul effect. A little of that is the Harrison Barnes effect. And then a big portion of it is just everyone else having been through the battles for a year and is a year older, including including Victor himself. But also a big part of that Lakers game down the stretch was a guy who has technically not been in many of those battles in Stephon Castle. Like he made play after play down the stretch of that of that Lakers game. One that comes to mind is just he drove LeBron James to the basket and finished a left-handed layup on him in the last couple of minutes, like in a very tight spot, very key spot. And for him to be 20 years old doing that type of stuff already, and in the Spurs’ closing lineup against the Lakers already, is really um that says something. That’s that’s that that really tells you what they think of him and where they’ve the Spurs think he’s going. And that to me, you you started this by asking about Victor, but to me the thing that stood out from that game was the the new rookie, Stephon Castle.
Mike Finger: Yeah, here at the Spurs Insider, we hate clichés, like we consider ourselves above those tropes, that nonsense, the stuff you hear on every podcast, every every uh every highlight reel, every post-game news conference. But the whole like no moment is too big for him thing, like not impressed by anything, like Stephon Castle seems to meet all of that legitimately. He played in a Final Four, he won a national championship at UConn as a teenager. He comes into this league, like like you said, taking LeBron James, one of the greatest of all time, if not top three, top two, whatever. And just does not seem that impressed by it. And that’s a quality that probably gets uh that’s a description that probably gets overused by a lot in talking about sports these days, but I I think it does fit him accurately. He is a guy who I think’s going to be really good in the long term. I think he’s going to be a guy who’s going to be really good this season, and he’s already really good now. That that pick might work out.
Jeff McDonald: Just taking it one cliché at a time. He’s just a guy that moves on to the next play, and that is an underrated skill when you’re, you know, playing in the first twelve games of your NBA career. Is just, I made a bad play, go on to the next one. I made a good play, go on to the next one, just like you said, unimpressed or unbothered by anything. And that’s a huge step for a for a young kid, a huge skill for a young guy, and he’s already got it.
Tom Orsborn: He’s got that quality that uh Chris Paul had at age 39. You think this is the first time I’ve faced a great player? He’s already got it. It’s unspoken, but you can sense it with him.
Mike Finger: Our buddy Chris Paul. You think this is the first time he’s ever he’s ever uh given out 12,000 assists? For the for the viewers and listeners, followers at home, that’s we we we’ve already got Chris Paul jokes back in the media room at the Frost Bank Center. And it’s with love, it’s with respect, admiration. Chris Paul, you can ask him anything, and he’s seen it before. Something that the Spurs probably like about him, like not going to be impressed by anything. You think this is the first time I’ve ever given out 12,000 assists in my career? Maybe it is, but I’m not going to act like it. Pretty cool. Another thing that we do not endorse here at the Spurs Insider, we don’t endorse clichés. We definitely do not endorse gambling on sports, and we don’t do award talk. Like longtime listeners of the Spurs Insider know how much the host of Spurs Insider hates award talk, particularly like before the holiday even seas—holiday season even starts. So if you’re out there wondering if we’re going to talk about awards for young Stephon Castle, let me tell you like like go go outside, like like like enjoy life, do something fun.
Jeff McDonald: Touch grass, they say. Touch grass.
Mike Finger: Touch touch grass. But uh but let me tell you this. To combine all these uh these things that we don’t like here at the Spurs Insider, like if if you are one of those deviants, those those those derelicts, those degenerates who are into the the sports gambling, like uh the the odds on young Stephon Castle for Rookie of the Year seem really really unrealistically long right now. Like I I’m not I don’t care if he wins it. I’m not going to talk about him winning it, but if he’s like listed as the tenth or eleventh guy on the list, like that’s that’s probably not going to stay that way all year. And I think that when we are forced to talk about this in February and March, I think the the the context, the discussion’s going to be a lot different because he’s he’s going to continue to have a really good year. The fact that he was not on like people’s top ten rookie lists surprised me. I’m not going to say that I’m, you know, I’m not going to break our colleagues at various outlets over the coals, but I would I clicked on those things and like, he’s not even in the top ten, really?
Jeff McDonald: It’s just uh like it’s hard to do those lists. And like you do those lists, and the our colleagues who do those lists do those lists because they get clicks. That’s the whole reason. And because people enjoy clicking on lists. Like that’s not exactly breaking news, like I think uh they click and get outraged that Stephon Castle isn’t in the top ten.
Mike Finger: Right. But they get your click.
Tom Orsborn: But it’s it’s hard to do those and so what you end up you can’t possibly watch all the games, especially all the games this early in the season. Like you’re not carefully tuning into Spurs-Wizards. A lot of these lists were probably done before he was actually starting.
Mike Finger: Yeah. You know, so he’s just a bench guy averaging five points a game, I can see it if you’re not if you’re just looking at the box scores. But it’s still worth stuff about that, like go touch grass, as Jeff said. Don’t worry about it.
Jeff McDonald: No, you should write letters and uh maybe maybe storm the Capitol.
Mike Finger: Let’s not do that. But uh since he’s been starting, Steph Castle has been pretty good, and whether he stays there or not once everybody is back, uh you know, the whole the whole band is back together, I don’t know, but he’s been pretty good as a starter.
Tom Orsborn: Pretty pretty pretty good.
Mike Finger: I guess someone asked me uh on maybe the bad site or the good site, I can’t remember which one—because there’s two now—but um asked me, neither’s one, but I mean they two exist in the world. Um asked me uh um if, you know, he’ll Steph Castle be the starting point guard by the end of the year, right? And I said well, like if they trade Chris Paul, but that was kind of his point. Like, yeah, Chris Paul is going to be traded, probably? Maybe? Possibly? It’s definitely a possibility, right?
Jeff McDonald: I’m not sure about that.
Mike Finger: It’s definitely a possibility, right? I mean, there’s a scenario where we get to February and he’s putting in his time with the Spurs and would like to spend the rest of his possible final season like playing for someone that might be going to the playoffs, and the Spurs might make that happen for him. And if that does, I think Steph Castle will be your starting point guard.
Mike Finger: I think that transitions nicely into um sort of a fascinating question. And uh I’m going to manipulate the circumstances here. I’m going to manipulate the the rules because I think if the Spurs are ten games out of the play-in at some point and there’s a there’s a team in the playoffs that need a point that needs a point guard, then that trade is obvious. But uh let me let me pause at this that um what if the Spurs are within two games of the play-in and uh Chris Paul is is enjoying his time here, playing well here, like the the games matter here. Um he’s still starting at point guard, still getting his minutes. And like the teams that might want to trade for Chris Paul aren’t trading for him to be the starting point guard. They’re trading they they might be interested in him coming off the bench on a on a on a might-be championship contender, you know, not necessarily like the the old Golden State Warriors who were clearly on their way to the Finals, no team like that. Like forget what the Spurs might want to do, what might might Chris Paul prefer? Just to keep hooping, to keep playing as the starter on a team that’s fighting to get into the playoffs, as opposed to uh being sent somewhere to come off the bench.
Jeff McDonald: You think this is the first time I’ve vetoed a trade?
Mike Finger: Come on.
Jeff McDonald: Come on. I I I just think there are like like you’re reaching, you’re reaching.
Mike Finger: That’s not the thing that Chris Paul.
Jeff McDonald: Um there are definite scenarios where Chris Paul gets traded at the deadline to a team that’s in the running for a championship, but I think there are also scenarios where Chris Paul plays the whole season here. And I I wouldn’t rule either out.
Mike Finger: Right. I think a lot just depends on what he wants to do. Yeah. To start to start this season, obviously he wanted to play. That’s why he signed with the Spurs, and you know, he I’m sure he could have gotten the same deal to be a bench player at a team uh for a team that’s got a you know, a you that is an obvious playoff contender or an obvious um championship contender. So he signed with the Spurs for the reasons he told us: he wanted to basically start and play a bunch of minutes. Whether that’s still true come February, and maybe you know, if you think about, well, I got two months left in the season and and maybe maybe playoffs to come, maybe that changes in his head. I don’t know. Those will be good questions to ask him as we get closer to February, though.
Tom Orsborn: Yeah. His teammates would love to have him stay. I mean, we talked yesterday, Jeff, with Tre Jones and just talking about how popular he is in the locker room, and you know, how much affection the guys have for him already.
Jeff McDonald: Well, it’s not it’s not even in interviews, Tom, like with when when we uh venture into the locker room after games, there’s always some kind of heated discussion. There’s sort of a catty corner from each other of Keldon Johnson and Chris Paul uh around the uh the sort of one of the locker room exits. And uh that is where the action is, man, between those two guys.
Mike Finger: Oh, yeah, it’s he would drive me nuts. It would drive me nuts. Yeah, I would almost be like, could like on the team flight, could you guys just sit together, like in the back or something? And we just have this one like uh nonstop talking section. I I mean this with a lot of admiration, and I mean this even on the floor. Like Chris Paul never shuts up.
Jeff McDonald: Never.
Mike Finger: Never shuts up. And I think that actually we kind of talked about this before, but I think that actually works on a young team. A young a young learning team actually wants to hear what Chris Paul has to say, wants to absorb it. Um you know, when he says something, your Tre Joneses and your Julian Champagnies and your uh you know, name your 23-year-old guy, it means something to those guys. Whereas if he’s on a team with a bunch of other All-Stars, I think they probably just want him to shut up.
Tom Orsborn: Heck, even Mitch Johnson’s soaking it in.
Jeff McDonald: I mean, Mitch Johnson is younger than Chris Paul by by years. And Chris Paul has veto power on the challenges.
Mike Finger: That’s true. I want to get to one of the names you just mentioned in a little bit, but as a little interlude interval, I also want to talk about the sites that you mentioned. Uh the the well first of all, one site, the the main site that you need to think about is expressnews.com. That’s where all of the coverage that Jeff and Tom and uh your humble host uh that’s that’s that’s that’s the that’s the clearinghouse. That’s the place where you find all this coverage online. Expressnews.com. And that’s where the newsletter, sign up for the newsletter. It’ll come right to you.
Jeff McDonald: Sign up for the the Spurs newsletter. You can you can even uh subscribe to the dead-tree Express-News edition if you are an old soul or an old person.
Mike Finger: Or an old Mark, yeah. Yes. Like it’s it’s great. Um the the two sites just were was mentioning earlier, like like where uh people talk about sports and little snippets on the internet. One of them I is done. Like I I don’t care about it anymore, but I would really encourage sincerely like people check out Bluesky. It’s a good place. Jeff’s been uh live tweeting from there, Spurs uh live uh skeeting from uh from Bluesky.
Tom Orsborn: What is it called?
Mike Finger: Jeff and Tom or or Tom and I are both on there, people from around the league. It’s a nice little community. There’s no bots. There’s the there’s no uh there’s none of the stuff that maybe you’re into, like the the the hate and the uh and the racism and the uh and the porn bots. Like that’s that’s much less there. I think it’s a refreshing change of pace. If you want to follow your Express-News people, your Spurs Insider people, on the Bluesky, we’d welcome you. I would I would say that uh if you are really into uh like uh people showing you uh their their nudes unsolicited, not a good site. Do the other one.
Jeff McDonald: Do the other one.
Mike Finger: Yeah. If you don’t want any uh unsolicited nudes.
Jeff McDonald: I do get lots of cat photos on Bluesky, if if so.
Mike Finger: Well, that’s good too.
Jeff McDonald: Yeah. It’s a dif different kind of photo.
Mike Finger: Different yeah, different dynamic. Lots of cat photos. If if you’re into that. Like it’s it’s basically what which what it’s it’s it’s a it’s a vibe, positive positive vibe. It’s it’s a no-judgment zone. There you go.
Jeff McDonald: Yeah.
Mike Finger: Uh, I’ve honestly taken a long time. You think I’ve never been on Bluesky before? If you uh
Tom Orsborn: I think I’ve never changed to another uh app before. Come on.
Mike Finger: Uh, come on, man. Uh and Howard Beck, but anyway, you know, I wanted to Howard Beck paid you to paid you to say that. Before that uh before that interlude, yeah, Howard Beck is a big proponent of Bluesky, friend of the podcast Beck. Check him out.
Jeff McDonald: I think we’re we’re legally required to call him the Great Howard Beck, actually.
Mike Finger: There you go. What I was going to get back to and name you mentioned earlier, and this I was going to give Jeff McDonald an opportunity to have a hot take on this podcast, which I know the listeners love. You in passing mentioned the name Julian Champagnie, and I wondered if you have any takes on him, Jeff.
Jeff McDonald: Um my my take is that I think he’s an actual like good player. I think he’s a I think he’s a uh I think he can be a rotation player on a playoff level team. If the Spurs get to that or on another playoff level team if if it comes to that. You know, you look at a lot of these guys that have come through during this era, and you know some of them look good for a while. It’s hard to kind of kind of uh determine between are are they just looking good because they’re getting a lot of minutes on a bad team and being allowed to do um whatever they want, get up as many shots as they want, or are they actually a good player? And I think Julian Champagnie is one that I I I maybe I’m wrong, maybe this is you know, I’m I’m just a caveman, but I think he’s a good player that could help the Spurs when they get to be um fighting for playoff spots and or another team. I think he’s a you have a possibly crazy he he reminds me of he reminds me of like the first or second year that Danny Green was around. And may and yeah, I mean they’ve both been around a couple years, but like definitely better than Danny Green when Danny Green walked onto the scene. But an early Danny Green. He reminds me of that. Knocks down the threes, plays defense. Like he’s a he’s a really good defender. People are you know, not not a not an All-NBA level defender, but really good in their scheme and and in what he does. Big and long for his position. And as he keeps knocking down those threes and shooting with confidence and playing with confidence, I like he looks to me like a guy that that should stick around for a while.
Mike Finger: I found that really uh interesting. I wanted to give you a chance to tell the uh listeners that. I’m glad you did. I think that that I brought a new dimension to our podcast where we talk about basketball and make uh interesting observations. That might be a new that might be a neat new thing we do. Also like making me defend things that I just type in the moment without really thinking about it. That’s also fun.
Jeff McDonald: Yeah, that’s great.
Mike Finger: Hey, there was a significant omission this week that in in minute twenty whatever of this podcast, we haven’t mentioned yet.
Tom Orsborn: Greg Popovich?
Mike Finger: No, no, there was a fifty-point game this week.
Tom Orsborn: Oh, oh, a fifty-point game. I see what you said. I thought you said.
Mike Finger: So I don’t know. Fifty-piece. There was a fifty-piece.
Tom Orsborn: Man, I’ve been in this Was that fun? I think I’ve never seen a fifty-point game before.
Mike Finger: Actually, not many, it’s by the other team. Not many with the Spurs. I think I think uh I think uh LaMarcus was the only fifty-point game I saw for the Spurs with my own eyes. I believe. Our our man uh Mike Monroe covered the Tony Parker fifty-five-point game in Minnesota way back in the day.
Tom Orsborn: Those are the yeah. As far as as far as the Spurs are concerned, I believe it’s the Parker game, the Aldridge game, and the Wembanyama game are the only fifty-point games of my vast beat-writing era.
Mike Finger: Mike and I told seventy-piece last year. In Philip, Tom Orsborn will appreciate this. Uh, I grew the listeners don’t care that much, but this is this is between me and Tom. Uh, I as Tom knows, I grew up in a very small town, about fifty minutes from uh from downtown San Antonio, a very very Catholic community. Everyone went to the Catholic Church. Every young uh boy who who grew up in that town became an altar boy, and the uh altar boys every year had an outing paid for by what was it the the uh whatever the society was there, the uh I can’t I can’t remember. Um but they would they would they would send us on an outing, and we went to see go see Spurs games. And in 1987, the altar boy outing went to HemisFair Arena, and uh uh I saw David Robinson score fifty points.
Tom Orsborn: Can you imagine that?
Mike Finger: That was my first fifty-point game with the with the altar boys.
Tom Orsborn: Eighty-seven?
Mike Finger: Eighty-seven. Oh, I’m sorry. That wasn’t 87. That was that wasn’t 80. It was let me I just Googled it. Yeah, a little bit. David Robinson fifty points. It was it was uh it probably was a little later than that. Eighty eighty-nine, ninety, something like that.
Tom Orsborn: But anyway, your
Mike Finger: It was it was a David Robinson game.
Tom Orsborn: Yeah.
Mike Finger: As far as altar boy stories go, that wasn’t so bad.
Jeff McDonald: Yeah. It was okay.
Mike Finger: I thought that might have gone somewhere else, better than we could. I’ll I’ll look that up later. It was it was probably that seemed young when I just Googled David Robinson fifty points and it showed up 87. That seemed way early.
Jeff McDonald: Yeah, it would have been really young for me. I think it was the nineties.
Tom Orsborn: Cool list of his games here. So it’s probably either was it against Charlotte or Minnesota?
Mike Finger: What year what are the two years?
Tom Orsborn: Well, 93 or 94.
Jeff McDonald: Ninety it was 93 for Charlotte and 94 for Minnesota.
Mike Finger: It was 93. If you’re a one-year-old altar boy.
Jeff McDonald: Yeah.
Mike Finger: Yeah. Eighty-seven seemed unrealistic. That was And I was saying that that seemed way too My my favorite player in the league. That’s my favorite part of this whole uh interaction is uh Tom checking you and saying he wasn’t even in the league yet. That’s true. Like that’s why you didn’t see it. That’s why you didn’t see it. Finger did warn the people ahead of time that he was off his game today. That’s true. This is not underachieved. But but uh that’s the Wembanyama fit the Wembanyama fifty-point thing was much different in that this is a seven-foot-three guy who, as we’ve talked on this podcast all year and will finish with this discussion here again, uh is going to stay out there. He’s going to stay shooting threes. He’s going to do what he did against the Wizards and uh just rain down. And if he makes them, the other team is going to be in a world of hurt. He is not going to uh go down there and uh post up back to the basket, David Robinson style, Shaquille O’Neal style, Hakeem Olajuwon style. Um against the Lakers the other night, they had a fella called Max Christie, another wing player banging on him and and preventing him from getting space down there. It doesn’t matter. He’s going to play his game, and I I I will throw it out to you guys again if we we all seem fine with that.
Tom Orsborn: He he that was the under maybe the underreported part of the Wembanyama’s fifty-point game is he darn near set the franchise three-point record in that game. You heard people say he shouldn’t throw shoot threes, and he took it personally, is is what it seemed like. I’ll show you.
Mike Finger: And I took that personally.
Tom Orsborn: Yeah, he made eight of them against uh against the Wizards, and the record is nine by uh the Rifleman, Chuck Person. So yeah, that’s what he’s going to do. He’s going to take those those three-pointers. That that was the fun part about the LaMarcus fifty-six-point game: not a single three-pointer. It was all twos, all twos and free throws.
Mike Finger: Yeah. In a way, in a way, that’s harder to do. That’s a lot of work. And we’re not going to get into the uh the Wembanyama injury too much on this podcast for fear of it being immediately outdated. Again, we are recording this before the Oklahoma City game. As of now, is he still doubtful, Tom?
Tom Orsborn: Yes. He’s completely out. He he doubtful. We don’t think he’s going to play tonight after banging knees with Anthony Davis towards the end of that game. Did not play against Dallas.
Mike Finger: I guess there’s there’s a remote possibility that he could take the floor Willis Reed style against the Thunder. I don’t think he will, but I also don’t think it’s a long-term injury. So as we look we’re not going to make official uh predictions because it it gets to this point where uh we’re predicting games that already happened. But moving forward, um before we we meet you again, they will have played Oklahoma City, home against Utah, uh Saturday home against the Warriors before we meet again. To me, I think the Spurs will have one more victory than they do as of this recording when we meet again. What what do you guys think?
Jeff McDonald: Yeah, I just beat Utah.
Mike Finger: Yeah. Utah’s been a little more um what do you want to say uh competent lately. Like it’s not a it’s not a gimme game. But just beat Utah. Like they beat the Thunder, right? The Jazz did, and then they beat the Spurs at some point here, so it’s not a gimme game, but show up and win that one, you’ll be doing alright.
Tom Orsborn: Okay. Top. I think we feel the same way. Yes, yes. One and one.
Mike Finger: Okay. And we’re we’re kind of having a disregard for Oklahoma City. Who knows what happened? Okay. Well that that’s that’s the show. Again, sorry for the the one where ending on a on a bang there. Back to David Robinson real quick. You know, he he did uh he did face the basket quite a bit. He shot a lot of mid-range jumpers, but got a lot of buckets in transition, but I looked it up, his his career high for threes, uh care to take a guess in a game?
Tom Orsborn: Yes.
Mike Finger: Three?
Tom Orsborn: I was going to say two or three.
Mike Finger: One.
Tom Orsborn: One.
Mike Finger: Wow. Six seven times he hit one in a season. That surprises me. I I was thinking maybe a little bit more, not anything outrageous, but
Jeff McDonald: Luck.
Mike Finger: You know, he did he shot a lot of outside shots. He was really but an eighteen-footer, eight fifteen eighteen-footer.
Jeff McDonald: Yeah, and fans like uh altar boy Mike Finger were in the stands saying, get your get get the post. Seven foot for God’s sake.
Mike Finger: Yeah. Mike uh I was an altar boy too way back, and I remember one of the perk one of the good things about being an altar boy, when you did certain things, like a funeral, uh you know, something out of the ordinary, you got a little money. Was that the case in your small town?
Jeff McDonald: I I don’t I don’t like where this is going. No, I didn’t. I I I never I never got money.
Mike Finger: Okay. I was I was really good though. Ringing ringing of the bells, there was there’s few that ever rang the bells better than I did at the perfect time. There was a lot of pressure in ringing the bells, and if you’re if you’re an altar boy like me and Mike, you know what I’m talking about.
Jeff McDonald: Yeah.
Mike Finger: I I think Sometimes you live up to it, sometimes you don’t. I almost always did, but on weeks like this, when I let I feel like I let the people down during the podcast. I got that obvious fact there wrong on David. Of course, it wasn’t in 1987. I would have been way too young. I would have been well, let’s not talk about how young I would have been. I I but But the Spurs said David Robinson wasn’t in the league yet, he said. Sorry, I got that wrong. And I think our listeners and viewers will not be surprised by the fact that I was no altar boy. That’s that’s that’s not a surprise either. Our producer has bore with us, Manny, the the great Manny Boc. Uh sorry we went a little over. Sorry, I was uh I was less than than my best this week. Try to do better next time. Until then, take care of each other and keep it real.